The Battle of the Labyrinth Annabeth's PoV
by purpleshadowmonster
Summary: The Battle of the Labyrinth from the amazing Annabeth's point of view.
1. 1

**Disclaimer (I really don't think this is necessary, but whatever!) *GOES TO MIRROR* Nope, not Rick!**

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Annabeth's PoV

If my day had gone as planned, it would have been really cool. Unfortunately, in the life of a demigod like me, a lot of things don't go as planned. I was mulling around New York on a street near my best friend Percy Jackson's school, with nothing to do. I was supposed to meet him after school, see a movie, and hang out. Little did I know that this would not work out.

So here I was, waiting for Percy with nothing to do. (I was a little ahead of schedule.) My mind kept focusing on the little things I liked about Percy. Such as, the way his eyes light up when he smiles, or the way his hair was never quite brushed. Of course, neither was mine, usually. Today, I wanted to impress him. I had brushed out my blond curly hair, and only wanted him to think I looked pretty. Maybe he'd even say 'Annabeth, you look beautiful today'.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by the real Percy bursting around the corner like a lunatic. I couldn't help laughing at his expression.

"Hey, you're out early!" I giggled, and grabbed his shoulders to stop him from falling off the curb, "Watch where you're going Seaweed Brain."

Then, just my luck, guess who comes charging around the corner after him. Some pretty red haired mortal girl. Mind you, she was covered in monster dust. Whoops, there goes my chance for Percy thinking I was attractive.

"Percy, wait up!" she called. Ah. So she knew him. Suddenly I looked up and saw smoke drifting up in the sky, and heard school fire alarms ringing. Nice going, Percy.

"What did you do this time?" I glared at him, "And who is this?"

"Oh. Annabeth, Rachel, Rachel, Annabeth." He introduced us quickly. "Umm, she's a friend I guess." He glanced nervously at her.

She looked at me. "Hi." Turning back to Percy, she said "You are in _so _much trouble. And you still owe me an explanation!"

Police sirens wailed in the distance.

"Percy," I said angrily, "We should go."

Rachel chattered on. "I want to know more about half bloods. And monsters. And this stuff about the gods." She whined. Writing down her number on his arm, she demanded that he call her, and as Percy protested, she shooed herself off, leaving us alone. I stared at Percy for a second. Then I stalked off down the street.

He ran after me with some dumb explanation about empousai and the camp burning.

"You told a mortal girl about half-bloods?" I cut him off.

"She can see through the Mist." He protested, "She saw the monsters before I did."

"So you told her the truth."

"She recognized me from Hoover Dam so—"

"You've met her _before?" _Now that ticked me off.

"Um, last winter, but seriously I barely know her."

"She's kind of cute." I said, hoping to get a good answer out of him.

"I-I never really thought about it." He stammered.

Yeah right Percy, I thought.

He went on, promising he'd take care of the school.

"I guess our afternoon is off. We should get you out of here, now that the police will be searching for you." I said coldly, without meeting his eyes.

"You're right." He said dejectedly. Well, at least he was disappointed we couldn't spend time together. "We have to get to Camp Half-Blood. _Now._"

**R&R!**

**~PurpleShadowMonster**


	2. 2

**Hi guys! I'm so sorry for not posting, but I'm **_**running out of ideas!**_** Could you put it in a review or PM me if you have an idea?**

**Chapter Two:**

Wow, nothing finishes off your dream morning than a long cab ride with an oblivious boy who's trying to get you to tell you everything.

"Any word on Luke?"Thanks for boosting my spirits Percy.

Shaking my head, I told him about Mount Tam. Just because he saved me from holding the sky up there doesn't mean I'm about to forgive him for telling a mortal girl about the gods. How stupid can you get?

"I didn't dare go close; I don't think Luke is up there. I think I would know if he was." That seemed to tick him off.

"What about Grover?" Grover, Percy's best friend, was a satyr in search of the great god Pan.

"He's at camp. We'll see him today." I responded shortly.

"Did he have any luck? I mean with the search for Pan?"

My hands flew up to my bead necklace as I fiddled with it. "You'll see." I didn't want to explain, that would only lead to more stupid questions.

He managed to get me to give him my phone to call his mom. If it had been anyone else he had wanted to call, I probably would have said no, but his mom was pretty cool.

We sat in silence for the rest of the ride. Percy kept glancing at the number on his hand.

After a long drive the taxi finally pulled over and let us out at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill.

"There ain't nothing here, miss. You sure you want out?" he asked me, frowning.

"Yes, please," I said, as I gave him a roll of mortal money. He stopped immediately complaining and drove away.

"Hey, Peleus," I said, scratching him under his chin, "Keeping everything safe?"

I walked down the hill. Percy followed, but we weren't really walking together. I tried not to acknowledge him, but my head kept freezing up on how cute his eyebrows looked when he was thinking.

"I need to talk to Clarisse." I announced. He stared at me like I was the idiot here. Poor oblivious Percy. This is why you should be a year rounder.

I jogged down the hill. I heard him mutter something, but I didn't stop to listen.

I ran down the hill to the hearing, Clarisse by my side. We met up with Grover's girlfriend Juniper in the woods and the three of us made our way to Grover's hearing.

Chiron and Percy entered the glade and Percy's expression told me he had no idea who Juniper was. _Grover's girlfriend_ I mouthed to him. Either he didn't notice she was a tree nymph, or he was a failure when it came to reading lips.

"Master Underwood!" Silenus bellowed at Grover. "Do you seriously expect us to believe this?"

"B-But Silenus!" He shook with terror, "It's the truth!"

"What are they going to do to him?" Juniper whispered in my ear.

"No idea…" I responded thoughtfully.

I was thinking about what Clarisse said. About the labyrinth. It would explain why no satyr could find Pan. Grover would never agree to it, and neither would Juniper, but maybe if I told Percy…

"One more week." I heard Silenus announce. Good. I had time.

Grover trudged over to us. "Hi Percy." He said gloomily, "That went well, huh?"

"Those old goats!" Juniper burst out, "Oh Grover, they don't know how hard you've tried."

"There is another option." Clarisse said mysteriously.

"Oh no! Grover I won't let you!" Juniper shook her head so hard I was scared it would fall off.

"I don't know." Grover muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Percy looked completely confused. Darn those stupid eyebrows.

I took a deep breath, forced to talk to the jerk. "I'll fill you in later Percy, We'd better get to our cabins. Inspection is starting.

**Did you like it? Was it worse? Was it better? Am I a failure? Please review!**

**~PurpleShadowMonster **


	3. 3

**Hi! So, super thanks to "turtlelover0511" for this idea. Here goes!**

I pushed past Silena into my slightly neater than usual standard cabin, and caught Malcom yelling, "But this _is_ neat! For us!"

"A badly stacked pile of papers versus… what?"

"A not stacked table of papers!"

"I honestly can't believe you actually said that."

"Well, what were we supposed to do with them?" He argued.

She stared at him. "Put them… on a shelf?" She shook her head. "Unbelievable." She marked down a 2/5 on her sheet.

"Two! Out of _five_! Hey!" Anika cried.

"Annabeth, you're head counselor here, what do you think?" Silena turned to me desperately.

"Well, compared to normal, it is pretty good." I nodded like I actually believed what I was saying.

"And then, whose bunk is that?" She clicked her ballpoint pen at my bunk.

"Mine." I muttered, embarrassed.

"Oh. Well…" She trailed off.

"I was at—"

"I know." She cut me off. "It's okay." She neatly scribbled out the two and put a beautiful three down instead.

"Show off." I thought I heard someone mutter. It might have been me; one can never be too sure…

xXx

"Luke!" I screamed. He wasn't a traitor he was being tricked! He didn't betray us! "Luke!"

He didn't notice me. _I'm right here! _ I wailed in my head.

"Nakamura, I don't believe you." Luke scowled.

"It's true! I'll swear it!" the boy shouted.

"No, not yet," Luke smiled evilly, "Prove it."

xXx

I sat up in bed, my breathing heavy, and my grey sheets in a tangled heap to my right. The only sound was mine and my siblings breathing. I swallowed hard, slowly realizing, in the dead of night, that I was dreaming, and Luke was never really anywhere near me. I reached under my pillow for my architecture book, accidentally grabbing a photo of me, Percy and Grover, on our first quest together.

We were all smiling. Happy and not worrying about friend turning into enemies, or anything like that. I noticed an apple clutched in Grover's hand, reminding me of our short lived Hacky Sack game.

_There was an apple. Grover gave it to us, and Percy suggested that we play a game with it. Somehow, the game ended up being Hacky Sack, which I was really good at. I was bouncing the apple everywhere, trying to make Percy mad that I was better than him. It didn't work, he seemed too interested in how cool it looked to bother being mad about it. Percy bounced it off his wrist wrong and it flew too close to Grover. In one bite our game was over_.

I smiled at the memory. It seemed like a million years ago, and brought up a whole string of memories of that time.

_I was sitting in the infirmary, feeding a cute boy ambrosia alternating with sips of nectar. I didn't think much of it at the time, Luke seemed so much better. He mumbled something about "bad cow, I'm innocent" but I guessed he was far from innocent since he was sitting here. _

_ "You drool when you sleep." In the split second after I said that, I thought I saw something like hurt flicker across his face, but I turned on my heel and ran off towards the sword arena. Why did I say that? I asked myself, I'm not a mean person! I don't even know him! I'm being a jerk! But, as soon as I was at the arena, all thoughts of the other boy drifted away, and my head was filled with Luke's smiling face._

_ "Come on!" he yelled angrily. I looked at the name on the side of the boat again "Are you kidding?" I asked, my face burning like it was on fire. "What's the problem now?" he sighed crossly. "Me, go with you, on 'The Thrill Ride O' Love'? How embarrassing is that?"_

I remembered that like it was yesterday. That was the moment when I thought, maybe, just a little bit, I might have the teensiest little crush on Percy.

I tucked the picture back under my pillow, and slipped down under my sheetes and into a surprisingly dreamless sleep.

**Was that any good? I don't know. Was it too short? Was it and improvement, or was it an utter letdown? Please Review!**

**~PurpleShadowMonster**


	4. 4

**Alright! I love this chapter in the book, so I hope it turns out well!**

Breakfast was wild. Rumor has it that, at three in the morning, an Aethiopian drakon was seen moping around the camp borders, looking for weak spots in our defenses. I heard the noise, but I assumed the Stoll brothers were just up to no good.

"This is a good reason for war games. We'll see how you all do with that tonight." Quintus grinned mischievously. I choked on my eggs at the thought. Chiron brought Grover over to Percy's table. Obviously, he was trying to make Percy convince Grover about the Labyrinth. Percy didn't know about it though, so how could he be of any help? I slipped away from my table. He had a right to know.

"I'll tell you what it's about. The Labyrinth." I said.

"You aren't supposed to be here." He remarked.

"We need to talk." I wasn't going to let him ruin my chances of seeing the Labyrinth.

"But the rules…" I glowered at him

I explained. We managed to get through it with only a few stupid questions.

"So… is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?" he asked dubiously.

He caught me off guard. "No… There may be passages down into the Underworld…"

More explaining. Gods, he asked so many questions!

"Convince him, will you?" I squeezed his arm. He opened his mouth to say something, but judging by the look on Quintus's face, I had about two seconds to get back to my table.

"What was that about?" Malcom demanded as soon as I was back.

I shot him a look. "Nothing that concerns you."

"But Annabeth—" Danielle started.

"It was about something important. You would get it if you knew what I was talking about." I said angrily.

"But we don't!" Malcom tried again, "If you would just tell us-"

"Shut up if you know what's good for you." I answered. There were murmurs of agreement from around the table. I felt someone's eyes on my back. Turning around, it was Clarisse. She raised her eyebrows. _Did you tell him?_ I gave her a short nod. _Yes._ She rolled her eyes but nodded back. _Whatever.

* * *

_

I picked up my book, opened it and read, _the angle of the column w—_until it was snatched out of my hand by Isaac.

"Oh no you don't. Time for archery. Now." He declared.

"No, but I was-"

"Don't argue."

"Could I please just-"

"Annabeth!"

"But I want to know what the angle of a column is!" I whined.

He literally pushed me out of the cabin. "Time to go!" he said in a fake cheerful voice.

I scuffed along behind him, taking up as much time as possible. After a while, he got fed up with my annoying scuffing routine, and sighed, exasperated, "Just come on! The sooner you get there, the sooner you finish!"

"Fine." I mumbled.

Suddenly, I found myself in the archery range. Someone thrust a bow in my hand and a quiver of arrows was dumped onto my back. I took a deep breath and started toward an empty target. Just as I was about to let my arrow fly, someone stepped out from behind the board.

"Don't shoot!" she cried. I lowered my bow.

"Hi Anika."

"Why are you at my target?" she asked.

"It looked empty."

"It's not."

"Well I know that now!" I sighed, "Gods." Walking away, I was considering what would have happened if she stepped out too late. I would have killed my sister. I spotted an empty target, and ran to it before anyone else could steal it. I shot, over and over, but I kept missing. Chiron trotted up.

"Focus Annabeth!" he reminded me.

"Sorry. I'm distracted."

He looked at me sadly, "Don't be."

* * *

"Gather round!" Quintus shouted. The hellhound bounced around him like a beach ball, looking for meat. "You will be in teams of two!" there was an outbreak of people, grabbing for their friends, pushing past me. I stood still. If I went to Percy, people might guess that I liked him as a little more than a friend, but if I went to my siblings, I wouldn't get to be with my friends, and most likely we would argue.

"Which have already been chosen!" Quintus bellowed over the noise. There was a collective "aww..." from everybody, in which I joined in. Quintus just rolled his eyes and prattled off names until I heard my own.

"Percy Jackson with Annabeth Chase."

He grinned at me. "Nice."

"Your armor is crooked." I claimed, and fiddled with the straps until my stomach stopped churning.

* * *

_Wump. Crack._ I pulled Percy down behind a boulder, but it turned out to be Travis and Connor Stoll, stomping through the forest. Percy started laughing, but I elbowed him in the ribs, and even though he put a protective arm over them, and gave me an unconvincing glare, he shut up.

Through some unspoken agreement, we ended up at Zeus's fist.

"Over there!" Percy cried.

"No, back there!" I argued.

I was scared now. Even though there were two of us, the scorpions could be hard to kill. As I was reaching the height of my anxiety, a voice behind us said, "Hi." We whipped around, swords ready to kill the thing behind us.

"Hey put those down!" the green girl yelped, "Dryads don't like sharp blades."

"Juniper!" I sighed in relief, "What are you doing here?"

"I live here." She said.

"In the boulders?" Percy asked doubtfully.

I resisted the urge to slap him.

"In the juniper. Duh."

"Oh." He blushed.

Juniper and I exchanged a glance.

"Are you busy?" she asked hopefully.

"Well, we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die." Percy said.

The urge to slap him was getting stronger every second.

"No, we're not busy." I glared at him, but I don't think he noticed.

I consoled her about Grover, insisting that he was fine, just stressed, until she said,

"You can't let him go underground."

I shifted my weight. "It might be the only way…"

_Scuttle. Click. Snap_. "Hide!" Juniper shrieked, and went _poof_ back into the plants.

The scorpions surrounded us.

"Climb?" Percy asked.

"No time." I responded.

"In here!" he cried, pointing to a crack slightly wider than my dagger.

I stared at him. "In there? It's to narrow!" No one could fit through it.

"Go!" _It's worth a shot._ I figured. The ground suddenly wasn't under my feet anymore. I screamed, and grabbed Percy's armor. If I went down, so did he.

I got up as soon as I was down, and grabbed Percy's arm.

"Where are we?" The minute I said it I knew it was stupid. As if he would know.

"Safe from the scorpions." His voice wavered.

We stood still. I slipped my hand in to his. He moved his thumb in small circles on my knuckle. I was embarrassed to admit it, even to myself, but I kind of liked it.

"It's a long room." He mumbled.

I wanted to slap him again. "It's not a room. It's a corridor. Help me examine the walls."

"Okay. What for?" he asked.

"The mark of Daedalus." I suggested, hoping not to have to explain.

"Okay, what does that look like?"

"Found it!" Thank gods. I pressed the triangle, and the ceiling opened up once again.

"Percy! Annabeth!" Tyson bellowed. I hoped he didn't fall in. Percy and I glanced at each other. And slowly we began to climb.

**How was that? Enjoyable? Awful? ** **Please Review!**

**~PurpleShadowMonster**


	5. 5

I stepped out of the corridor, blinking, even though there was no sunlight. Percy led me over to Clarisse and her buddies.

"Where have you been?" Clarisse demanded furiously, "We've been looking forever!"

"But we were only gone a few minutes!" Percy said, confused. I gave him a _stop talking now _look, but he didn't seem to notice.

Chiron, Tyson and Grover approached us.

"Percy! You are okay?" Tyson looked worried.

"We're fine. We fell in a hole." He answered. I glared at him again, but yet again, he didn't notice.

Chiron raised his eyebrows at him.

"Honest!" he protested.

"The game is over." Chiron said, "You were gone for over an hour."

_The Labyrinth! We found it._ My breath caught in my throat.

Clarisse wasn't letting us off easy. "A hole?" she asked suspiciously.

I took a deep breath. This wasn't the place for this conversation.

"Chiron," I said hesitantly, "Maybe we should talk about this at the Big House."

Clarisse's eyes widened, "You found it didn't you?"

I swear my stomach was trying to come out of my throat by force.

"I- Yeah, we did."

"What did we find?" Percy asked innocently.

I turned to him, dead serious, "An entrance to the labyrinth. Or, in Luke's eyes, and invasion route straight into the heart of camp."

* * *

I climbed into the tiny camp shower, and turned it on as hot as it would go. Still freezing, I stood shivering with shampoo still bubbling in my hair. Hearing the tiny bubbles popping in my hair, I was reminded of Snap, Crackle and Pop, the Rice Crispy dwarf things.

_I sat at the breakfast table, five years old, happily snacking on Rice Crispies. As I reached for my glass of milk, my trailing caught on my cereal bowl and knocked it over. Crispies and milk were everywhere. "Annabeth!" My step mother cried in horror, "Not on the new table! Go to your room!" I ran up to my room, holding in my tears until I had thrown myself on my bed. I sobbed. I didn't mean to! They hated me! I ran to the bathroom, grabbed my toothbrush, and thumped downstairs, toothbrush clenched in my tiny fist. "Annabeth, you aren't allowed out of your room yet." My step mom looked at me angrily. "I'm going for a walk." I announced. I was out the door before she could tell me otherwise. I had no intention of coming back, but, short as my legs were, I only made it to the next block before my dad caught up with me. "Come back please, Annabeth," he sighed. "No." I scrunched up my face, "You hate me. And so does __she__." I pointed my finger back at our house. My dad soothed me, and managed to bring me home. _

That was my first attempt at running away. I succeeded when I was seven. I met Luke and Thalia, and made it to camp in one piece with Grover.

I realized that while I was lost in my memory, I had finished showering, and I was now brushing my teeth. I spat the minty flavor into the sink and watched it circle the drain with the water. I trudged back to my cabin,feeling cold and soggy. I tucked myself into bed and fell asleep.


	6. 6

Percy looked pale when he met us in the arena for the war council. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but I figured he'd just had a disturbing dream. The hound was ripping up a giant distorted pink thing, unrecognizable after the dog's version of plastic surgery. Clarisse helped me do the briefing. Even Argus was there. And he wouldn't take his eyes off of me. All of them.

"We need to go in." I finally declared. I half expected someone to shout _No duh, Annabeth!_ And clarify why to everyone. I had no such luck. Continuing I explained, "We need to find Daedalus's workshop before Luke does. Then we can convince Daedalus not to give Luke the string!"I Everyone looked thoughtful. I was ready for someone to shout 'That won't work! You need to do that thing that you need to do!"

"Wait, why don't we just blow up the entrance?" Percy asked.

I shook my head. "The Labyrinth is magical architecture Percy." I responded calmly, "It would take huge power to seal even one of the entrances. Clarisse destroyed a whole building, and the entrance just shifted a few feet." He sunk back into his seat, defeated.

"We need to go in." I pressed, "Find Ariadne's string and prevent Luke from getting it."

"But no one can navigate in there. What chance do we have?" Percy asked.

"I've been studying architecture for years. I know the Labyrinth better than anyone." _Except Daedalus himself. _I silently added.

"From reading about it." Percy responded incredulously.

"Well, yes." I shrugged off the feeling of uncertainty he was giving me.

"That's not enough." He said flatly.

"It is!" I huffed.

"It isn't."

"Are you going to help me or not?" I cried, hoping to get at least one yes out of him. He didn't respond. He was turning red in the general direction of the hellhound.

I turned my head. Every eye was trained on either Percy or me.

Chiron cleared his throat loudly. "Obviously something should be done. We need a quest. Someone to go into the maze and keep Luke from getting Ariadne's string."

"We all know who should lead this quest. Annabeth." Clarisse declared.

I wanted to lead a quest, but not this quest.

I felt tiny. "You've done as much as I have Clarisse. You should go too." I protested. Clarisse was so much braver and stronger than me.

"No." She replied assuredly, "I'm not going back in there again."

"Don't tell me you're scared. Clarisse, chicken?" Travis snickered.

"You don't understand, punk! I'm never going back in there again. Never!" She said firmly. She stormed out.

"I didn't mean to…" Travis said awkwardly.

"It's all right; the poor girl has had a rough year. Now do we have an agreement that Annabeth should lead the quest?" He asked. Everyone nodded. Percy looked suspiciously in Quintus's direction, but he had been acting strange all day so I didn't think much of it.

Chiron looked directly into my eyes. "Well then, my dear, it is your time to visit the Oracle. Assuming you return in one piece, we shall discuss what to do next."

His words made me uneasy, but I walked out of the arena and headed to the Big House.

* * *

I sauntered around camp, hoping to delay my meeting with the Oracle. I hoped she would say something like _you rock, your quest is going rule, and nothing will go wrong._ Oh well. I trudged up onto the porch, and hearing it creak under my tennis shoes, I squeezed through the partially open door. I padded up to the attic; my heart beating like it was trying to break my ribs. The oracle's throaty voice whispered in my mind. _I am the Oracle of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach seeker, and ask._

"O, Oracle, I ask for a quest."

She opened her withered mouth and green mist billowed out, encasing me in what smelled like a mixture of rotten eggs and decomposing flesh. I nearly gagged, and the mist receded taking the form of Thalia, Grover, my father, Athena, Luke and Percy. All the people I was close to.

Thalia spoke first, in the raspy voice of the oracle: _"You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze"_ Then she was whisked away in a swirl of greenish mist.

Grover delivered the next line of the prophecy, "_The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise." _He disappeared as fast as Thalia.

My father gazed at me sadly in the mist, "_You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand"_

Athena looked at me. _ Stop!_ I wanted to yell, but I let them finish, "_The child of Athena's final stand."_

Luke's scar rippled, "_Destroy with a hero's final breath"_

Percy gave me an adorable half smile, "_And lose a love to worse than death."_ The final word echoed around the room. Then, suddenly, I was just a fourteen year old girl standing in an attic with an old hippie mummy.

I gripped the side of the table. My eyes flickered around to the things that littered it. _Hydra head, recovered by Leo Anderson and Andrea Walker, 04/96. Feather of a __Stymphalian bird, recovered by Sara Whitehead, 07/64._ My eyes rested on one certain object, out of place among the bloody monster claws and such. A silken pink scarf. I didn't need to read the tag, I already had it memorized. _Scarf of the goddess Aphrodite, recovered by Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase._ I remembered taking the scarf from him. 'Oh no you don't. Stay away from that love magic." Love. Lose a love. Percy. I slid down the wall and hugged my knees and rocked in a little ball for about fifteen minutes. Love. Lose a love. Percy. Ran through my head over and over and over. Suddenly, I glanced up at the mummy. Her glassy eyes seemed to stare right into my soul. They seemed to tell me to get out of here.

"I know, I know." I muttered and descended back into the main floor of the Big House.

* * *

I crept back into the arena. Everyone's head turned towards me.

"My dear. You made it." Chiron congratulated me. I sat down, and stared at the ground, making patterns in the dirt.

"Well?" Quintus prompted.

I looked at him, annoyed, "I got the quest. We're going into the Labyrinth."

If it were a movie, crickets would be chirping.

"Well, what did the prophecy say, Annabeth?" he asked awkwardly.

I inhaled sharply. I didn't want to tell them.

"Um," I stalled, "It said something like: _you will delve in the darkness of the endless maze'_."

Silence.

"_The dead, the traitor and the lost one raise."_

"The lost one! That could be Pan!" Grover cried excitedly.

I nodded stiffly.

"_You shall rise or fall by the ghost kings hand. The child of Athena's final stand."_

More silence.

"Well, er, the prophecy does not sound complete. Are there more lines?" Chiron asked uncomfortably.

"I don't remember." I lied. Chiron raised an eyebrow. I felt like crying. Percy just looked adorably confused and disappointed.

"Something about_ destroy with a hero's final breath."_ I continued.

"And?" Chiron looked like he was on the verge of being annoyed.

"Look, the point is, I have to go in, and get the string before Luke does." I wouldn't tell them. I don't know why. "I need help." I looked right in Percy's amazing green eyes, "Will you come." A smile crossed his face.

"I'm in." he said, half smiling, half serious.

I couldn't help smiling at his expression. As I smiled, he looked extremely pleased.

"And Grover?" I asked. Grover was pumped up about the 'lost one'.

"Yes!" he said, "I'll pack extra tin cans for snacks!"

"And Tyson? I'll need you too."

"Yay!" he cried happily, "Blow things up time!"

I wasn't thinking about numbers until Chiron spoke, "Wait. You are breaking ancient laws. Only two companions on a quest."

"But I need them all!" I complained. I couldn't imagine leaving any of them behind. Not even Percy, even if it might save his life.

"Annabeth… Three is a sacred number. Four… this is risky.

"We have to." I said confidently.

Chiron sighed. "Very well. Let us adjourn. Tomorrow, at dawn, we will send the four of you into the labyrinth.

**Hit or Miss?**


	7. 7

**Disclaimer: (Am I supposed to put these in **_**every **_**chapter?) Sorry, I don't own them. If I did, the movie would have: FOLLOWED THE PLOT OF THE BOOK, the characters would be in character, and Annabeth would be BLOND.**

I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. I'm a liar. Lies are never good. They always end in someone getting hurt, whether it was the person who told it, or the person it was told about. This time, both people would get hurt. _And lose a love to worse than death._

"I don't want to." I muttered, gripping the scrolls in my hand so tight that they almost ripped in half, "I'm not losing everyone."

"Knock knock?" someone asked timidly. I whipped around, and found myself looking into the green eyes of the subject for most of my mutterings.

"Oh. Hi, didn't see you there." I hoped he hadn't heard me mumbling about losing people.

"You okay?" he asked. If I were a granny, I would have said, 'what a nice boy.' I hate to admit it, but those were the exact words that ran through my head. 'What a nice boy.'

"Just trying do some research. The labyrinth is so huge. All the maps just lead from nowhere to nowhere."

"We'll figure it out." 'What a nice boy, what a nice boy.' The granny in my head repeated.

"I've wanted to lead a quest since I was seven." I told him stupidly. He already knew that.

"I know. You're going to do awesome." 'What a nice boy.' 'Shut up granny.'

"I'm worried Percy. Maybe I shouldn't have asked you to do this. Or Tyson and Grover."

"Hey, we're your friends. We wouldn't miss it."

"But…" I stopped myself from saying _but what if you die?_

"What is it? The prophecy?"

"I'm sure it's fine." I squeaked.

"What was the last line?"

I put my arms out. I was so scared. For a split second, he looked shocked, but then he took my hint for once and gave me a hug.

I shouldn't have felt so awkward. He was my best friend. But my heart was beating about a million miles a minute, and yet I never wanted to let him go.

A weak "Ahem" sounded behind us. We broke apart immediately, only to find Malcolm standing behind us, the color of a beet and looking very sheepish.

"Um, Annabeth, archery practice is starting, Chiron said to come find you."

"We were just looking at maps." Percy said idiotically.

"Okay." Malcolm looked like he didn't know what to make of it. I tried not to laugh at both of their expressions. Then he ran out of the cabin.

"You go on ahead Percy; I'd better get ready for archery."

"Hey Annabeth…" he asked vaguely.

"Yes?" I asked.

"About your prophecy, the line about a hero's last breath-"

"You're wondering which hero? I don't know." I was done with the stupid prophecy.

"No," he contradicted, "the last line usually rhymes with the one before it. Just wondering, did the last line end in death?"

"You'd better go. I'll see you in the morning." I said coldly.

* * *

He left. Thank gods. I stared at the nowhere maps again, trying to figure out if this quest was really worth the trouble.

We met as Zeus's fist the next morning after dawn. I grabbed my backpack, gave my cabin one last sweeping look, and ran over to the rocks. Once there, I checked to see if I had everything. My Yankees hat was folded neatly on two camp T-shirts and a pair of jeans. My dagger was tucked into my belt and, my sleeping bag resided at the bottom of my pack. Nectar and ambrosia lay next to my flashlight and a twenty pack of AA batteries.

Percy muttered something to Chiron and they left to the woods.

I had the urge to put on my hat and follow them, but instead I just tried to get Grover more amped up for the journey underground.

"So Grover!" I marched up to him, "Are you ready for the Labyrinth?"

"No." he grumbled, "Is anyone? Are you?"

"I think so!" I lied.

"I know you're lying Annabeth."

"I'm not!" I said, trying to sound indignant.

"Then why do you look like you're about to burst into tears?"

"Fine." I muttered, and walked away.

I was ready to go. I was ready to walk into that corridor and find Daedalus and make him give us that string.

"I will keep an eye on—" Chiron was saying.

"Hey Percy. You ready?" I wanted to get over this. Just like Isaac said before archery practice, the sooner you get there, the sooner you're done.

He nodded, his hair flopping all over his face.

Chiron looked at us. I half expected him to say, 'Have fun kids! See you when you get back!'

Instead, he said "Well, take care. And good hunting."

And with that, the four of us dropped into blackness.


	8. 8

The Labyrinth had moved since the last time we had been in here. The tunnel looked nothing like the one I had dragged Percy down into. Now it was round and coated in bricks, with little iron barred holes every few feet or so. I caught Percy peeking into one, but obviously there was nothing there. But, being a nice girl, I kept my laughter to myself.

Luckily, we made it about one hundred feet before we got lost. I told them to stick to the left wall. Then, hopefully, we could reverse our course and get out again. I read it in a book, and for some reason it stuck to me. But, just our luck, as soon as I proposed that idea, the left wall was gone.

We were in a round room with lots of tunnels leading out of it. I glanced around at all of them.

"Uhh, which way did we come in?" Grover chewed on his sleeve.

"Just turn around." I suggested. We all turned a different way. Well, we couldn't go through any of those tunnels, and I thought I heard a faint scuttling from one of them, and eventually I had eliminated all tunnels except one.

"That way." I announced.

"How do you know?" Percy asked doubtfully.

"Deductive reasoning." I answered proudly, and started toward the tunnel.

He caught my arm. I jerked away, but his grip was firmer than I remembered it being.

"So you're just guessing." I could just see his face, without even glancing at him. Proud half smile, eyes alight with the idea that he was more right than me. I faced him angrily.

"Just come on." I marched off and, thankfully, he followed. I was starting to regret asking him to come. All he'd done so far was shoot down my ideas. I was the smart one here!

The tunnel I had chosen reminded me of a long skinny pyramid. The farther we went into it, the smaller it got, and just as I thought it would end in a point and we'd be stuck forever, it opened up into a huge room. Or maybe it just seemed huge because of the tiny tunnel.

After about a minute, I got over my shock of the scary tunnel, and my breath caught in my throat. The room was beautiful. Its walls were coated in tiles, faded tiles. They were Roman, with the gods on Olympus in the height of their power. In the middle of the room, a fountain stood, once tall and beautiful, but now chipping and coated in dry mildew and algae.

"What is this place? It looks-"

"Roman." I finished for him. I considered it a compliment seeing as if he had finished he would have said the wrong thing.

"Let's keep going." I said quickly. This place freaked me out.

We left the room, and made it a little farther before the tunnel morphed back to cement. Pipes wove in and out of the ceiling and dripped a gross greenish liquid. There was graffiti on the wall, but to me it just looked like a can of spray paint had thrown up on the wall. I was sure Percy could make the letters out. He'd lived in New York City his entire life. I kept walking, pretending not to have heard.

"I'm thinking this is not Roman." Percy said. I kept walking, pretending not to have heard.

I was _really_ starting to doubt my decision on asking him to come.

The tunnels changed every couple yards. We walked through a wine cellar, which reminded me of a winery in California that my dad had forced me to go to. Believe me, I was perfectly happy staying at home.

I heard footsteps above us and decided we were under some kind of restaurant. Then, Percy spotted our first skeleton. I bit my tongue as hard as I could to keep from screaming.

I spat blood out of my mouth.

"A milkman."

"What?" Percy looked repulsed.

"They used to deliver milk." Did I have to explain _everything_ to him? Gods.

"I know what they are, but they were delivering milk like a million years ago. What's he doing down here?" His nose was still wrinkled. I fought the laugh back down my throat.

"Some people wander down here by mistake. Some come down exploring. A long time ago, the Cretans sent people down here as human sacrifices."

Percy's nose wrinkled even more.

"He's been down here a long time." Grover looked like he was trying not to cry.

"Only bones. Don't worry goat boy, milk man is dead." Tyson reassured him.

"He doesn't bother me. Don't you smell it? Monsters."

"Underground smells like that. Monsters and dead milk people."

"Oh good. I thought I was wrong." Grover's voice quivered.

We left the milkman in peace, and turned up back in the Roman room.

But this time, someone was waiting for us.


	9. 9

**Wow, that took a while. Well, I'm not too proud of the last chapter, so I hope this is better! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own them. Shoot.**

A two faced god. I racked my brains. Who was he? He _was _a god. That was obvious. Janus! I quoted my Greek mythology book in my head. _Janus is the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most well-known remnant is his namesake, the month of January. The reason for this is that one is looking back at the previous year and the other is looking forward to the New Year ahead. He is most often illustrated as having two faces looking in opposite directions. He is said to look into the future and the past._

Crap.

"Well Annabeth? Hurry up!" barked the left face.

"Don't mind him, he's terribly rude. Right this way, miss." The right face smiled at me.

He reminded me of the man you see waiting at the door when you go to a hotel, and he takes your bags up to your room. What was he called? Oh, yeah. A bellhop.

What on earth were they talking about? Where? Why did I need to hurry?

"Uh… I don't…"

"That funny man has two faces." Tyson looked alarmed.

"The funny man has ears, you know! Come along miss." The left face snapped.

They strained to look at me from opposite sides of their heads. They wanted me to choose a door.

"The doors are closed." I stated.

"Duh!" the left face sighed at me, his eyes bulging and his tongue hanging out.

"Where do they lead?" I asked warily.

"One leads the way you want to go," the right face said optimistically, "and the other leads to certain death!" Oh joy.

"I know who you are!" I cried.

"Oh you're a smart one." The left face was nonplussed. I straightened up. I was.

"Why are you trying to confuse me?" I fought to keep my cool.

The right face grinned at me, but there was something behind the smile, something evil.

"You're in charge now. Isn't that what you always wanted?"

"I—"I tried to protest but I was no match for Janus.

"We know you Annabeth. We know what you struggle with every day. Sooner or later you will have to make the decision. And that choice may kill you."

I could literally feel myself pale. My choice. I could join Luke. I could be with him forever. I trusted him. What had he ever done to me? Well, besides betray the whole camp and the gods, but if you knew him well enough (like I did) you could kind of overlook that. But I could also choose camp, my mother, and everything I cared about. Percy. His name stuck out like a sore thumb in my decision. If I joined Luke, I would never truly be with him, because a piece of my heart would always be with Percy. And that definitely _didn't_ mean I was in love with him. He was just a friend. _Just._

I hope.

"Leave her alone." Percy said. Gods, he was so ignorant.

"Who are you anyways?" He continued. If Janus hadn't spoken then, I'm sure he would have said something like 'And what makes you so great anyhow?' and then I would have to correct him, and we'd probably never see the light of day again. But, you know, nothing too extreme.

"I'm Janus," the faces chorused, "God of…" he rattled off a list of who he was.

"…Now it's Annabeth's turn!" the left face seemed overjoyed, "Such fun!"

"Shut up!" the right face griped, "This is serious. One bad choice can ruin your entire life! But no pressure, Annabeth. Choose!"

"I—I choose…" I couldn't do it.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to block tears that came to my eyes.

Suddenly, behind my eyelashes, I saw a bright white light fill the room, as though the sun had fallen through the ground and dropped right into the Roman room.

Oh, Queen Hera's showed up now. What a pleasant surprise. You know, because we haven't even been down here a day, and we've already run into two gods.

Just wonderful.

"Janus." She scolded, "Are we causing trouble again?"

"No milady." The right face spluttered.

"Yes." The left face snickered.

"Shut up!" The right face cried.

"Excuse me?" Hera looked insulted.

"Not you milady! I was talking to myself." The right face sounded shrill.

"I see. You know very well your visit is premature. This girl's time has not come yet." I assumed she was talking about me, but I didn't understand. My time had come long ago, but I had chosen to ignore it. I frowned.

"Leave these heroes to me. Or I will turn you into a door and break you down." She continued strictly.

"What kind of door?" the left face murmured.

"Shut up!" the right face screeched.

"Because French doors are nice," the left face contemplated, "lots of natural light."

"Shut up!" the right face yowled, "Not you milady! Of course we'll leave. Just doing my job, offering choices."

"Causing indecision." Hera frowned, "Now be gone!"

"Party pooper." The left face mumbled, and disappeared.

Hera smiled at us. "You must be hungry." She said pleasantly and waved her hand.

The room transformed from a depressing, filthy place, to a place that looked like it was cleaned five minutes ago. The old fountain sprang to life as though it had been running for years, and a table stocked plentifully with lemonade and sandwiches _poofed_ into existence.

Percy's eyebrows shot up to somewhere near his hairline.

"Who are you?" he asked obliviously.

"I am Hera," she grinned, "Queen of Heaven."

**Good or bad?**

**~PurpleShadowMonster**


	10. 10

**Sorry I'm taking long to update, but that annoying little bugger named homework keeps coming around. Grr…**

**Oh, and Hera's conversation with Annabeth was really long, so I cut some stuff out.**

**Well, enjoy!**

Percy's mouth gaped open. He blinked about ten times before he figured out how to drag his chin off the ground, but his eyes still took up about half of his face. I smirked, but Hera shot me a quick look and I wiped the smile off my expression. But inside, I still thought he looked like a terrified sheep.

Grover chowed down on his napkin, his face full of pleasure, possibly because pink dye tasted good. Or something like that.

"Grover dear, use your napkin, don't eat it." Hera said pleasantly.

Grover's face transformed until it looked like his usual alarmed one.

"Yes ma'am." His expression threatened to burst into tears.

"Tyson, you're wasting away. Would you like another peanut-butter sandwich?" She smiled at him.

"Yes, nice lady." his eyes widened with delight at the thought of more peanut butter sandwiches.

"Queen Hera," I cut in, concerned about Hera's strange niceness, "I can't believe it. What are you doing in the Labyrinth?"

"I came to see you, naturally." She looked confused at my question.

Percy and Grover looked at each other, and Grover's napkin was down his throat in a heartbeat.

I still was skeptical, but I gingerly took a roast beef sandwich and but down into the lovely white bread. It _was _delicious…

"I- I didn't- I didn't think you liked heroes." I stammered, trying not to offend her. _Yeah real smooth, Annabeth._

She sighed, "Because of that little spat I had with Hercules? Really, so much bad press over one little disagreement." As far as I could recall, her "little spat" with Hercules wasn't that _little,_ but I pushed that thought out of my mind and focused on the plate of tuna salad sandwiches in front of me.

"But, didn't you try to kill him, like, lots of times?" I blurted out.

"Water under the bridge my dear. Besides, he was one of my husband's children with _another _woman. Zeus and I have had some excellent marriage counseling sessions since then. Especially after that last little _incident._"

"You mean when he sired Thalia?" Percy suggested loudly. Yeah, just go ahead Percy. Announce it to the whole world while you're at it. You aren't really close to getting us incinerated or anything.

"Percy Jackson, isn't it? One of Poseidon's… children." She frowned.

"But I bear you no ill will my dear. Once in a while, when there is a quest that I care deeply about, Zeus allows me to grant one wish."

"A wish?" I was suddenly very interested. I wanted a way through the Labyrinth.

"Before you ask it, let me give you some advice. I know you seek Daedalus. His labyrinth is as much a mystery to me as it is to you. I would visit my son Hephaestus at his forge. Daedalus was a great inventor, a mortal after Hephaestus's heart. There has never been a mortal Hephaestus admired more. If anyone could tell you Daedalus's fate, it would be Hephaestus."

"But how do we get there?" I was getting impatient, "That's my wish. I want a way to navigate the Labyrinth."

She shook her head sadly, like it was the wrong thing to say. Perhaps it was, but I _wanted _it. Now.

"So be it. You wish for something, however, that you have already been given."

"I don't understand." I said through my teeth.

"The means is already in your grasp. Percy knows the answer." Well, now we'll never know, if it's up to _Percy._

"I do?" He looked faintly surprised. See? I rest my case.

"But that's not fair, you're not telling us what it is!" I fought to keep my voice away from a whine.

"Getting something and having the wits to use it… those are two different things. I'm sure you're mother Athena would agree." She seemed to take pride in not telling us _anything._

The room shook, and thunder rumbled angrily in the distance.

"That would be my cue. Zeus grows impatient. Think about what I have said, Annabeth. Seek out Hephaestus. You will have to pass through the ranch, I imagine. But keep going. Use all means at your disposal, however common they may seem." She pointed to the doors, and they melted away into tunnels, that looked dark and scary.

"Oh, and one last thing. Annabeth, I have postponed your meeting with Janus. But sooner or later, you _will_ have to make your choice. Farewell!"

And she poofed away, as did everything else she had done. Tyson's happy face was reduced to grief as his peanut butter sandwich dissolved into mist. The fountain stopped, and the walls faded back to their original state.

"Ergh!" I stamped my foot, "What sort of help was that? 'Here, have a sandwich! Make a wish! Oops, I can't help you! Poof!'" Honestly, if I could, there would be steam coming out of my ears.

"Poof." Tyson sighed sadly, looking at the air where his sandwich had been.

"Well, she said Percy knows the answer. That's something." Grover suggested half-heartedly.

All of our heads turned toward Percy.

"But I don't!" he protested, "I don't know what she was talking about!" Yep, leave it to Percy to ruin a quest the first day.

"All right." I took a deep breath, "Let's keep moving."

"Which way?" Percy asked.

Grover and Tyson stood up suddenly.

"Left." They chorused.

"How can you be sure?" I asked. I wasn't, but I wanted to know why they were.

"Because something is coming from the right." Grover said.

"Something big." Tyson added gravely, "In a hurry."

I bit my lip.

"Left is sounding pretty good." Percy said. He was trying to sound brave, but you could hear the fear in his voice.

"Come on then!" I cried, and dragged him headfirst into the dark, scary corridor.


	11. 11

The tunnel was straight. There were no crazy loop-di-loop turns or a ton of side exits. The only downside was that it was a dead end. Yup. We got to the end, and this giant boulder blocked us. We were stuck in this stupid tunnel, with no way out by side exit, no turn to cower behind, and being chased by some weird thing dragging its feet and breathing heavily.

"Tyson, can you—" Percy began.

"Yes!" Tyson cried, determination in his eyes. He threw himself against the giant rock, and the whole tunnel shook. Dust settled in my throat. I attempted to clear it without sounding like a choking cat, but I had no such luck.

"Hurry!" Grover whimpered, "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!"

The boulder gave a sound like a food processor gone mad and gave way with a great grunt from Tyson.

"Close the entrance!" I cried. Idiot boys.

We all crowded around the boulder and with an immense push, it ground back into place. The thing behind us wailed in frustration and scratched helplessly at the massive boulder.

I spun around. We were trapped in a cell, probably a high security prison by the looks of it.

Percy, still facing the humongous stone, announced, "We trapped it."

Grover, being smart, commented on reality, "Or trapped ourselves."

I later discovered that we were in a closed prison. So the bars should _not_ have been locked, right? Wrong.

"What in Hades?" I grabbed at the bars and shook, feeling like a crazy prisoner in a Hollywood movie.

"A prison." Percy stated. Aye aye, Capitan Obvious, "Maybe Tyson can break-"

"Shh!" Grover whispered urgently, "Listen."

Somewhere above us, crying echoed around another cell. A hoarse voice accompanied it, growling in a language unintelligible to me.

"What's that language?" Percy breathed. Took the words right out of my mouth.

"Can't be." Tyson muttered.

"What?" He asked, with his stupid little adorable eyebrows pulled together in a frown.

Tyson was at the bars in a split-second, ripping them open.

"Wait!" Grover moaned.

But Tyson had no intention of waiting. He barreled right down the corridor directly towards the grieving voice.

With Percy and Grover right behind me, I slipped out of Tyson's hole and hurried down the hallway after him. That's when I finally realized where we were. I'd been here before, which explained why everything looked so familiar. But why were we here? It made no sense.

"I know this place." I muttered to Percy.

"What?" He looked at me like I was insane.

"This is Alcatraz." I continued.

He blinked.

"My school went here on a field trip once. It's like a museum." That was not a good memory. I had _wanted _to learn stuff, but somehow, given the annoying boys, I had learned close to _nothing._

"Oh." He nodded, "Wait, you mean that island near San Francisco?"

I tried my best not to roll my eyes.

"Yeah."

Percy looked so confused. Apparently, he didn't think it was necessary to actually retain information or understand where you were going on a quest. I was lost in his perfect face when Grover's voice rang through the passage.

"Freeze."

Tyson ran on.

"Stop Tyson!" Grover whispered urgently, "Can't you see it?" He caught up quickly and grabbed Tyson's arm, dragging him backwards with a strength I never knew he possessed.

I followed Grover's pointed finger to the second floor balcony. There was a woman with no legs. Not like, just a torso, but like a centaur, except with a dragon's body. She would have been beautiful, if it wasn't for the snakes twisted around her waist like a skirt and flowing out of her scalp like Medusa's hair.

Her belt was one of the most terrifying things I'd ever seen, and I've seen some pretty scary things in my fourteen years. It bubbled like a potion in a Harry Potter movie, and morphed into the faces of vicious animals—a wolf, a lion, a bear… I couldn't look it for too long without feeling just a tad bit nauseous.

Tyson let out a whimper.

"It's her."

"Get down!" Grover hissed.

We cowered in the shadows behind a corner, but the monster didn't even acknowledge us. It seemed to be talking to someone—or something—in a cell on the second floor, exactly where the sobbing was coming from.

"What's she saying?" Percy muttered dubiously, "What's that language?"

Tyson stiffened, "The tongue of the old times. What Mother Earth spoke to Titans and her… other children. Before the gods."

"You understand it? Can you translate?" Percy begged.

Tyson closed his eyes. "You will work for the master or suffer." The grating voice of the monster echoed out of his throat.

"I hate it when he does that." I thought aloud. Percy gave me a dark look that said 'Shut up or he won't do this in the future', but it just made me stifle a laugh.

"I will not serve." Tyson said in a low, grave voice.

Then he returned to the monster's voice, "Then I shall enjoy your pain Briares." When he said the name, he fumbled. His voice broke, and he let out a choked noise, but he resumed without complaint in the monster's language. "If you thought your first imprisonment was unbearable, then you have yet to feel true torment. Think on this until I return."

Then, the dragon lady stomped towards the stairwell, and I pressed myself against the wall, thinking she was going to come down here and kill us all. However, she spread her wings, and leaped off the catwalk, somehow carrying her weight with her spindly little bat wings. She flew right over us, making my eyes water with a monster scent that even I could smell.

"H- H- Horrible." Grover shivered, "I've never smelled anything that strong."

"Cyclopes' worst nightmare," Tyson mumbled, "Kampê."


	12. 12

I should have known! It was _so_ simple! Oh my gods! I'm such an idiot! How did I not see it?

"Who?" Percy asked idiotically.

Tyson gulped. "Every Cyclops knows about her. Stories about her scare us when we're babies. She was our jailer in the bad years." He looked terrified. No, more than terrified; horrified.

"I remember now," I cut in, trying to look smart for Percy. "When the Titans ruled, they imprison Gaea and Ouranos's earlier children- the Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires."

"Heka-what?" Percy asked. Was he trying to be _funny?_ Well, for your information Mr. Jackson, I'm not laughing. I fought back an exasperated sigh.

"The Hundred-Handed Ones. They called them that, well, because they had one hundred hands. They were the elder brothers of the Cyclopes." I continued, trying to retain the annoyance in my voice. However, soon those stupid eyebrows melted all my aggravation.

"Very powerful." Tyson said, his voice dripping with admiration. "Wonderful! As tall as the sky. So strong they could break mountains."

"Cool," Percy mused. "Unless you're a mountain." Ha, ha. Very funny Percy.

"Kampê was the jailer." Tyson continued, as if Percy had never spoken. "She worked for Kronos. She kept our brothers locked in Tartarus, tortured them always, until Zeus came. He killed Kampê and freed the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed Ones to help in the war against the Titans." Tyson had been doing his research. He was spot on with everything in his story. I had to wonder if this was some special Cyclops power, but I didn't say anything. Although I was a little jealous that no one needed me for any explaination.

"And now Kampê is back." Percy stated the obvious, as usual.

"Bad." Tyson muttered. Right on Tyson, this is very, very bad.

"So, who's in that cell? You said he had a name…"

"Briares!" Tyson had a_ very_ sudden mood swing. "He is a Hundred-Handed One. They are as tall as the sky, and-"

"Yeah." Percy rudely interrupted. "They break mountains."

He stared up at the ceiling, looking angry.

"I guess we should check it out." I said, trying to break the tension, "Before Kampê comes back."

* * *

As we rounded the corner, the sobbing grew louder. When I was able to see the Hundred-Handed One, I took note of everything about him. I never wanted to forget this wonderful experience. He had eight toes on each foot, and supposedly one hundred arms (not hands), but I wasn't in the mood for counting. For all I know, he could have had sixty-two. His skin was the color of sour milk, and he was wearing what appeared to be a gigantic diaper.

"Either the sky isn't as tall as it used to be," Percy stated. "Or he's short."

An elbow in the ribs would have done him a world of good at that moment, but I, with all my self control, was able to stop myself. And hoped that someone else would.

Tyson fell to his knees with emotion.

"Briares!" he called, and the sobbing ceased when the Hekatonkheir heard his name.

"Great Hundred-Handed One! Help us!" He said.

"Run while you can Cyclops." He sighed. "I cannot even help myself."

Tyson looked confused, "You are a Hundred-Handed One! You can do anything!"

He sniffled. His hands never stopped moving, whether they were fiddling with bits of scrap metal, or playing rock, paper, scissors with each other.

"I cannot!" He wailed. "Kampê is back! The Titans will rise and throw us back into Tartarus!"

"Put on your brave face," Tyson ordered.

Then, Briares' face was replaced with completely different features. He had the same brown eyes, but other than that, he could be an entirely different being. I had read about the Hekatonkheires being able to do this, but I never thought I would be able to actually witness it. I wished I had a camera, so I could take one of those "before and after" photos. It was amazing.

Sadly, his beautiful, brave face was short lived. Shortly after, his face morphed back to his original, melancholy face.

"No good. My sad face keeps coming back." He sighed.

"How did you do that?" Percy asked.

This time, my restraints didn't work, and my elbow dug its way into his side.

"Don't be rude. The Hundred-Handed Ones have fifty different faces." I explained.

"Must be hard to get a yearbook photo." Wonderful analogy Percy.

Tyson was still stuck in his "Briares is the best" mode.

"It will be okay Briares! We will help you! Can I have your autograph?"

"Do you have one hundred pens?" Briares sighed.

"Guys! We have to get out of here! Kampê will be back!" Grover twisted his hat in his shaking hands.

"Break the bars." I instructed, not sure who it was aimed at.

"Yes!" Tyson smiled like he was the father of the "Student of the Year" winner. "Briares can do it! He is very strong. Stronger than Cyclopes even! Watch!"

Briares let out a whimper. Not one of his hands made an attempt to break the bars. I felt bad for Tyson...his hero was letting him down. How is he going to take this?

"If he's so strong, why is he stuck in a cell?" Percy wondered (stupidly) aloud. Does that boy have no tact?

I elbowed him. "He's terrified." I muttered in his ear. "Kampê imprisoned him over one thousand years ago. How would you feel?"

Briares started sobbing again.

"Briares? What is wrong? Use your great strength!" Tyson looked perplexed. Poor Tyson…

"Tyson? I think you'd better break the bars." I suggested tentatively. I really wished Briares could break them to save Tyson the disappointment.

Tyson's face fell.

"I will break the bars." He said, trying to be brave. He grasped the cell door, and tore it off the hinges like it was made of paper.

I swallowed, my throat tight. "Come on Briares. Let's get you out of here."


	13. 13

**Chapter 13!**

Briares frowned at my extended hand.

"I cannot. She will punish me."

"It's alright." I pleaded, "You fought the Titans before, and you won, remember?"

"I remember the war." Briares pondered, "Lightning shook the world. We threw many rocks. The Titans and monsters almost won. Now they are getting strong again. Kampê said so."

"Don't listen to her!" Percy protested, putting on _his _brave face, "Now come on!"

Briares sat. He said nothing, and didn't move a centimeter. The only things that so much twitched were his hands and the blinking of his eyes.

"Once game of rock, paper, scissors." He cried desperately, "If I win, you come with us, if I lose, we leave you in jail." I really hoped he had a plan. Because if we didn't Tyson would be miserable for months. Maybe years.

Briares's face changed. He looked as though he was sure of himself, but he wasn't going to show it quite yet, "I always win at rock, paper, scissors." He stated.

"Let's do it!" Percy declared.

Briares sighed, as though he was bored. He came up with an army of rocks, papers, and scissors, "I told you," He sighed, "I always win at- What have you made?" He stared at Percy's hand. Percy had cradled a finger gun in his palm.

Percy looked devious, "A gun. Gun beats everything."

"That's not fair." Briares looked envious.

"I didn't say anything about fair. Now Kampê's not going to be fair when she gets back. She's going to blame you for ripping of the bars. Now let's get going!" he proclaimed.

"Demigods are cheaters." Briares muttered. But he shuffled to his feet and exited the cell.

Finally, something had gone right today. I felt better. Like I was actually able to lead this quest, even though it was Percy who accomplished what I had hoped to do. But I helped. So that counts right?

But, the warm and fuzzy feeling disappeared almost instantly, because, right underneath our feet, Kampê was baring her teeth at us.

(Grey line!)

"The other way." Percy bossed us around. But I didn't have time to argue, because we had to dash down the catwalk at about 900 miles per hour to escape the growling Kampê. Briares followed without objection.

Kampê's gravelly voice echoed throughout the corridor behind us. Tyson mouthed at translation, his eye widened in shock. I recognized one word: _Kill._

We rounded a corner to the C Block.

"Left." I instructed, secretly pleased to be able to boss now, "I remember this from the tour."

We burst through a door, and arrived in the prison yard. Tourists walked around, their eyes glazed over as they listened to the audio tour. I looked over, across the bay, and saw San Francisco, and imagined that my dad was over by the boat, looking at his daughter with pride as she led her very first quest. Then, Mount Tam overtook my vision, and I felt like crying. Luke, my Luke, might be up there right now, contemplating the best way to kill me. My Luke could be deciding whether Percy would be better dead or alive. A sharp pinch from Grover brought me out of my daydream.

"It's getting worse…" I muttered, referring to Mount Tam.

"Keep moving!" Briares cried, "She is right behind us!"

"Kampê can't fit through the doors." Percy said hopefully, and that's when the wall burst apart. Bricks scattered everywhere, and I felt dust in my eyes.

Shrill mortal screams echoed through the yard. There was no telling what they saw, but it couldn't have been very charming.

"Poison!" Grover barked, "Don't let those things touch you or…"

"Or we'll die?" The master of mind over here guessed.

"Well, after you shrivel slowly to dust… yes." Grover's voice waned.

"Let's avoid the swords." Percy ever-so-wisely advised us.

"Briares fight! Grow to full size!" Tyson insisted.

Briares looked like he would rather return to his cell and shrink to "mega-small" size in a corner.

This was too scary. I've seen a lot of absolutely terrifying things in my fourteen years, including a full grown Cyclops holding my family hostage, but a hige dragon lady with snakes for hair and skirts was really messing with my nerves.

So I said the only thing that came to mind. "Run."

For once, Percy agreed without an argument, and we ran as fast as we could out of that courtyard.

"The boat?" Grover suggested.

"Too slow." Tyson said gravely, "back into the maze. Only chance."

I didn't have time to warm up to the idea.

"We need a diversion." I said, as my battle strategy skills started finally kicking in.

"I will distract Kampê." Tyson said, ripping a lamppost out of the concrete.

"I'll help you." Percy said bluntly. I wanted to scream "Idiot!" and grab his arm and drag him by his sorry little limbs back into the maze, but Tyson had a more effective approach.

"No. You go. Poison will hurt Cyclopes. A lot of pain. But it will not kill."

"Are you sure?" The idiot responded. _Of course he's sure!_

"Go brother. I will meet you inside."

I could see the pain of leaving Tyson written across Percy's face. Much as I hated Cyclopes, Tyson had grown on me. But we didn't have time to be sentimental. We had to go. _Now._

Tyson chucked his pole at Kampê, and she sliced his pole to shreds. Briares blocked most of Percy's view, and I hoped he couldn't see his brother now.

The last thing I remember was Tyson and Kampê having a showdown on opposite sides of a Dippin' Dots stand.

Then we turned a corner.

We weaved in and out of cell blocks, until we found 8-D, the cell we'd entered this madness through. Percy touched the wall, obviously confused.

"Look for the mark!" I screeched.

"Here!" Grover's panicked voice sounded behind me. He touched the mark until it was a nice blue color and the wall mad and awful noise and ground away, leading us straight back into the Labyrinth.

Tyson scrambled around the corner, a look of shock on his face. A growl echoed throughout the corridor, and Kampê came rounded the corner after him. Percy shoved us all into the maze, and cried to Tyson.

"You can do it!"

No, he couldn't. He was going to need some help, and thanks to Percy here, I was thrust in this tunnel with a shaking Grover and a whimpering Briares.

I heard a _SMACK_ and turned around to see Kampê stomping backwards, wrestling a shield off her face. Percy's wrist was bare. In the split second that she had taken to stumble, Tyson had dove into the maze and sealed the exit.

The last thing I heard was a mighty roar, as we raced down the corridor, away from Alacatraz.


	14. 14

**And now… fourteen!**

We stopped in a room ringed with waterfalls. I bent over, catching my breath. I don't know, but something about fighting dragon ladies really takes it out of you. We stood on the edge, looking into the bottomless pool in the center.

"This pit goes straight to Tartarus," Briares murmured sadly. "I should jump in now and save you the trouble." Quite the pessimist, isn't he?

"Don't talk that way," I scolded. "You can come back to camp with us. You can help us prepare. You know more about fighting Titans than anybody."

"I have nothing to offer. I have lost everything." _Except the memories. Poor Briares._

"What about your brothers?" Tyson asked. "The other two must still stand as tall as mountains! We can take you to them!" Oh no. I had heard a rumor about this.

"They are no more. They faded," Briares grieved.

Tyson blinked tears out of his eye, and they mingled with the water of the falls.

"What do you mean _they faded_?" Percy asked. Oh dear. "I thought monsters were immortal, like gods." _You thought wrong then! You can be such an idiot sometimes! This is not the time to bring this up!_

"Percy," Grover's voice was as weak as tea left out for a week. "Even immortality has limits. Sometimes… sometimes, when monsters get forgotten, they lose the will to stay immortal."

I was pretty sure Grover was thinking of Pan. And that Percy was thinking (if that was even possible) of everything he'd ever heard of monsters fading. I was thinking of Medusa, and how she was completely alone, without even Poseidon to come and love her. For a second, it kind of made sense why she had tried to kidnap Percy. I mean, he is pretty great. I felt bad for her, but that feeling flitted away almost instantly as I remembered, in detail, the look on her face as she attempted to petrify us. I shivered, even thought the pit was warm.

"I must go," Briares voice sounded strong in the silence.

"Kronos's army will invade camp," Tyson reminded him. "We will need help."

"I cannot, Cyclops," Briares drooped.

"You are strong!" Tyson argued.

"Not anymore," Briares straightened up.

"Hey," Percy tugged one of his arms and led him a little ways away, where they could talk privately.

I touched Tyson's arm, trying to console him. His sadness was almost tangible. His shoulders heaved as he let out a deep sigh.

"Hey, you're fine," I whispered.

Grover looked at me and shook his head. '_No,'_ He mouthed, meaning that Tyson should be left alone.

'_Fine,'_ I mouthed back.

I watched Briares as Percy glared at him, in his Percy way. Briares's face changed to shame, and he turned and trudged down the passageway, without even so much as a glance in our direction.

Tyson sobbed like a toddler.

"It's okay," Grover touched his shoulder tentatively, which must have taken all of the guts bottled up inside of him.

Tyson wiped his nose on the back of his hand. "It is not okay, goat boy. He was my hero."

We were silent. The rushing of the waterfalls echoed in my ears.

I took a deep breath. "Come on guys. This pit is making me nervous. Let's find a better place to camp for the night."

(Grey line)

We established our camp in a room similar to a Greek tomb, which felt surprisingly comfortable. I had decided that the older the maze was, the closer to Daedalus's workshop we would be because I was pretty sure he built out from the center. Percy sent an odd look my way when I stated that. Not exactly skeptical, but just… odd. Maybe he needed to warm up to the idea first.

"We must be close to Daedalus's workshop," I said, trying to raise the group spirits. "Get some rest everybody. We'll keep going in the morning."

"How will we know when it's morning?" Grover whined.

_Darn it. Didn't think of that._ "Just get some rest," I sighed.

Grover yanked some straw out of his backpack, and mashed it into a roundish shape. He used it as an edible pillow and reached out with his teeth, slowly chewed the straw. He was snoring in seconds.

Tyson sat heartbroken in a corner, fiddling with little metal scraps.

Percy crawled over to him. They talked for a little while. I didn't try too hard to listen; it felt too intrusive.

I sighed and tried to get comfortable. I pushed my pillow into different shapes, and leaned my back against it. I felt stiff and tired, but I was the leader of this quest. I had to stay strong.

Percy shuffled away from Tyson. I sat for a while, just thinking. I thought about Percy. I thought about how he was getting to be so grown up, but how he was still such an annoying little boy at times. But then, like today, there were times when he seemed so much older and commanding. I thought about our relationship. I liked it where it was…friendship. Sure it could be a little… disappointing at times, but I had a pretty great best friend fighting beside me. My thoughts drifted to the mortal girl, Rachel. Maybe he couldn't see it, but I could. She had at least _some_ feelings for him. And personally, I didn't want any competition.

A noise from behind me set me on high alert. Turns out, a lumbering Percy was approaching.

"You should sleep," I said, secretly glad for an excuse to stay awake.

"Can't," he simply replied. "You doing all right?"

"Sure. First day leading the quest. Just great."

"We'll get there," he promised. "We'll find the workshop before Luke does."

I brushed a strand of my blond hair out of my eyes as Percy examined my face.

"I just wish this quest was _logical._ I mean, we're traveling, but I have no idea where we'll end up! How do you walk from New York to California in one day?" I moaned. _It made no sense!_

"Space isn't the same in the maze."

"I know, it's just…" I glanced at him. "Percy, I was kidding myself. All that planning and reading. I don't have a clue where we're going."

"You're doing great," he reassured me. "Besides, we _never _know what we're doing. It always works out. Remember Circe's island?"

"You made a cute guinea pig."

"And Waterland, how you got us thrown off that ride?" _Oh, _that_ ride._

"_I _got us thrown off? That was totally your fault!" _It was!_

"See? It'll be fine."

I smiled. He really knew how to make things better, didn't he?

"Percy, what did Hera mean when she said you knew how to get through the maze?"

"I don't know. Honestly!" He replied.

"You'd tell me if you did?"

"Sure. Maybe…" He hesitated.

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe if you told me the last line of the prophecy, it would help."

_And lose a love to worse than death_.

"Not here. Not in the dark." _Not with you around._

"What about the choice Janus mentioned? Hera said-"

"Stop," I snapped, shutting him out. "I'm sorry Percy. I'm just stressed. But I don't… I've got to think about it."

We sat silently, my outburst hanging in the air.

"Nico's down here somewhere," Percy said. "That's how he disappeared from camp. Then, he found a path that led down even farther—to the Underworld. But now he's back in the maze. He's coming after me."

I thought about that. "Percy, I hope you're wrong. But if you're right…" I painted pictures on the wall with my flashlight.

"How about I take first watch?" He said. "I'll wake you if anything happens."

I wasn't in the mood for arguing, so I just slumped over in my sleeping bag, facing away from him. Soon, I fell into a peacefully dreamless sleep.


	15. 15

**Chapter 15 is here! Thank you, to all of you who reviewed! I love you guys! **

I think a lot when I'm on watch. All the silence, it allowed me to keep my thoughts sorted. After Tyson woke me for last watch, I leaned against one of the stone pillars and kept myself awake as best I could. I thought about the taxi ride with Percy as we were heading to camp, and how long ago it seemed that I was sitting there, wishing I could just disappear. Now, I would give anything to be back in that taxi with Percy and not in a gigantic, overwhelming maze.

Then Thalia's name popped into my mind. I thought about hearing her voice in the Cyclops' maze, and how she had called my name, just like she always did. _"Annabeth, honey, it's time to get going!" _I remembered running and running, trying to find Thalia or Luke, feeling like a mouse running through a giant paper maze. The Cyclops' booming laugh echoed throughout the building as I ran, like an evil scientist looming over me as he performed his most gruesome experiments. Then Thalia was gone. She was a tree. I remembered one time when I went looking for Luke, and I found him leaning dejectedly against her tree. _"Luke! Luke! Did Thalia say anything?" He had told me that she would talk to him when he was near her tree. "Yes sweetie. She said to tell you that she loves you, and that you should never forget that." I looked at him. "Does she love you too?" I asked innocently. His eyes glistened like they had tears in them, but I knew that Luke _never_ cried. "I think so, sugar."_

As it turns out, Grover was correct; I had no idea when morning came. After a while of being on fourth watch, Tyson stirred in his sleep and awoke. Not soon after, the other two awoke, and we set off for another day of wandering.

Then we passed through a tunnel, much like that of a gold mine.

"This isn't right. It should still be stone." I complained. I thought we were going in the right direction! What happened?

We walked and came across a different corridor that was extremely chilly, and you could constantly hear a faint dripping of water in the corner.

"It smells like the Underworld in here," Grover informed us.

Percy whipped around, facing a small pile of cheeseburger wrappers and crushed Coke cans.

"Nico," he muttered. "He's been summoning the dead again."

Tyson shuddered. "Ghosts were here. I don't like ghosts."

"We've got to find him." Percy declared. Then he took off running.

"Percy!" I cried, and raced after him. What kind of a moron would run down a foreign corridor? There could be monsters down there!

He dove into a tunnel, and I followed. Grover and Tyson were right behind me.

I caught up with him, staring up through a metal grate made out of pipes. Blue sky shone through, illuminating his face in an alien way.

Then, the sun was gone. A scarlet cattle was staring down at us.

"Moo."

"It's a cattle guard." Grover cried in distress.

"A what?" Percy raised his eyebrows.

"The put them at the gates of ranches so the cows can't get out. They can't walk on them," he said knowledgably.

"How do you know that?"

Grover looked affronted, "Believe me, if you had hooves, you'd know about cattle guards. They're annoying!" He huffed.

Percy looked right at me. "Didn't Hera say something about a ranch? We need to check it out. Nico might be up there."

"All right," I said uncertainly. "But how do we get out?"

A loud grunt sounded behind me. Tyson had solved our problem.

_CLANG!_

"MOO!"

"Sorry cow!"

Then he boosted us out of the tunnel.

This was certainly a ranch. It looked like we were still in California, but I wasn't sure. Rolling green hills were off to the east, and oak trees ran picturesquely on top of them. At least the horizon looked good.

Barbed wire fences ran from a gate in both directions.

"Moo?"

"Red cattle," I explained to no one in particular. "The cattle of the sun."

"What?" I heard a familiar dubious voice to my left.

"They're sacred to Apollo."

"Holy cows?"

"Exactly." I didn't listen to his joke. "But what are they doing-"

"Wait!" Grover said. "Listen."

It was silent. Then, a baying dog sounded and a bush near the gate crackled. A dog with its mouth wide open, tongues streaming out of its mouths along with drool, leapt out of the underbrush. Yes, mouths. It was a two headed dog.

"Bad Janus dog!" Tyson yelled.

"_Arf!_" Grover said raising his hand in welcome. Percy gaped at him.

The "Janus dog" growled, drool dripping to the ground. I guess it wasn't the friendly type.

Then its master came out of the woods behind us. I whipped around, my hand on my knife.

He was humongous, and looked like he could probably strangle me with two of his fingers. He had braided his beard, and he was wearing a beat up looking straw hat. His faded "_Don't mess with Texas"_ t-shirt was covered with a jean jacket with the sleeves ripped off, so we could easily see his giant muscles rippling across his arms.

But the most terrifying part was his giant spiked club. I was considering running.

"Heel Orthus." His deep voice rattled my bones.

He eyeballed us, and looked like he was about to burst out laughing. I imagined what we must have looked like. Four kids, one with one eye, one with goat legs, all looking exhausted and ratty, and _all_ standing in the middle of _his_ cattle.


	16. 16

I didn't feel unwelcome. Eurytion walked next to us, his club over his shoulder, not threatening to kill us or anything. Orthus growled a lot, and sniffed at our feet, but Eurytion kept him more or less under control.

We headed down a long dirt path, and the only thing that really kept me going was the fact that Nico was there. Heat came in waves off the sun-baked ground, flies and insects buzzed thickly in the hot air. I spent a lot of time killing flies to get them off of me. Grover didn't kill one. Every so often, we'd pass another pen of holy animals, which either looked really angry or looked totally chill.

We passed some fire-breathing horses, and Percy finally spoke up.

"What are _they_ for?"

Eurytion crunched up his face. "We raise animals for lots of clients. Apollo, Diomedes, and… others."

I was starting to get suspicious.

Percy kept him talking. "Like who?" he pressed.

"No more questions." Eurytion said finally.

After a while of being wrapped up in my own thoughts, we left the woods, and looking down on us from the top of a tall hill, was a gigantic white stone and wood ranch house, with big, nice windows that probably let in a lot of light, making it a wonderful place to live. An architectural piece of genius.

Though, of course, I could do better.

Like, like...

"It looks like Frank Lloyd Wright!" I cried.

Everyone ignored me. I can't blame them. Well, I would have liked it if someone had responded, but, of course, you know, _boys._

Eurytion spoke again, "Don't break the rules. No fighting. No drawing weapons." Percy and I exchanged nervous glances, "And don't make any comments about the boss's appearance."

"Why?" Percy blurted, "What does he look like?"

A deep, gravelly voice spoke out from behind us.

"Welcome to Triple G Ranch."

At first, he just seemed like an extremely fat man, wearing a three color shirt. And I was fine with that, because he wasn't going to kill us. Probably.

Then I actually looked at him. And he was _not_ just an extremely fat man. He was a three bodied man. His head was connected to his middle body, just like a normal man. So if you ignored the other two, you could almost believe that he was normal. But it was hard to ignore. His right arm grew out of his right chest, like a regular arm, and his left out of his left, like normal. But when combined, well, to be honest it was completely terrifying. But after years trying to look cool to Luke, I was pretty much a master at not showing fear. So I put on a brave face, lifted my chin just a tiny bit higher, and smiled at him.

"Say hello to Mr. Geyron." Eurytion mumbled. Percy took it literally.

"Hi! Nice chests! Uh- ranch! Nice ranch you have!" he babbled.

Geyron opened his mouth to respond, but the glass doors behind him burst open with a bang, reminding me of an action movie.

And who would show up now, make my day even more of surprises, than the one and only, Nico di Angelo.

"Geyron," He began in a slightly whiny voice, "I won't wait for-" His eyes raked over us, pausing on me, and settling on Percy. They narrowed, full of hate, and anger, and the slightest bit of... guilt.

His hand slowly floated to his belt, and he drew his sword. Short, sharp, and darker than dark, it looked like it could kill you without a second thought. Like... well, like Hades.

Geyron growled, "Put it away Mr. di Angelo. I ain't goin' to have my guests killin' each other." He put a lot of emphasis on the word _guests._

"But that's-"

"Percy Jackson." Geyron supplemented, "and Annabeth Chase. With some of their monster friends. Yes. I know."

"Monster friends?" Grover muttered indignantly.

"That man is wearing three shirts!" Tyson had an epiphany.

"They let my _sister_ die! They're here to kill me!" Nico shuddered with rage.

"Nico," Percy said reasonably, pulling his hands up in surrender. "We're not here to kill you. What happened to Bianca was-"

"Don't speak her name! You're not worthy to even talk about her!" Nico screamed.

Names...

I had never told Geyron out names. And nobody else had, and unless he and Eurytion could do some kind of mind communication, I was pretty sure that he _shouldn't_ know our names.

"Wait a minute._" _I pointed at Geyron, "How do you know our names?"

He half smiled, then winked at me, "I make it my business to keep informed darlin'. Everyone pops into the ranch from time to time. Everyone needs somethin' from ole Geyron. Now, Mr. di Angelo put that ugly sword away before I have Eurytion take it from you."

Eurytion sighed shifting his club to his shoulder, like _oh, here we go again_. Orthus growled, as drool dripped from the side of his downturned mouth.

Nico reluctantly sheathed his sword, keeping his hate filled eyes trained on Percy.

I tried to look at Nico the same way I had last winter, before I rode the manticore off that cliff. His clothes were covered in the white specks of dust from the Labyrinth, and the bags under his eyes stood out like coal against his pale skin- like a plant left in a dark space too long. His hair was shaggier, flopping into his eyes the way Percy's used to before his mother forced him into a haircut. The more I looked at him, the more he reminded me of Percy, the way he was on our first quest, before he got all brave. Looking uneasy, like he thought you could suddenly turn on him and kill him any second. Maybe it's a Big Three thing. He didn't look like the kind of boy who played with Mythomagic cards anymore. He didn't look like he would hang on to my every word. And he definitely _didn't_ look like the kind of boy who would cry if his sister joined the Hunters. I almost wished I could give him a big old hug, and tell him how sorry I was, and that Percy was trying to _save_ Bianca, but that sword that he had pulled out gave me an uneasy feeling.

"If you come near me Percy, I'll summon help. You don't want to meet my helpers, I promise." His voice had deepened, and that kind of added to the whole "son of Hades" and "scary" thing he had going for him.

"I believe you." Percy said seriously.

Geyron patted Nico's shoulder, but it looked more forceful, like he was trying to push him through the porch.

"There, we've all made nice. Now come along folks, I want to give you a tour of the ranch."


	17. 17

**I realized that I haven't been putting disclaimers in all my chapters. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to, so here goes:**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. :P**

I was mortified. Humiliated. This was one of the most embarrassing things that had ever happened to me. If I could, I would disappear, into thin air. This was awful. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. Gods. I was never going to survive.

As it turned out, Geyron's idea of a "tour" was driving us around in a trolley-thing, like they have at Disneyland to get you from the parking lot to the actual park. Which would have been fine. I mean, I like those trolley things. But there was a catch. It was a golf cart painted as a cow. Which would have been fine. I mean, I like cows. But it was tricked out like a cow. As in, it had horns on the top, and the horn sounded like a cowbell. So it was pretty much completely awful.

Nico sat in the back, looking dark and depressed. The four of us took the middle two cars. I was squashed in next to Percy, which caused me to pray to the gods that I wouldn't blush the entire ride.

_Dear gods: If I don't blush right now, I will fight. Thanks, Annabeth_

It wasn't the best, but I was under pressure.

So I focused on my foot, trying to figure out if the little hole that the shoelace goes through would be broken by the end of this quest. I made a mental note to check on that later.

"We have a huge operation!" Geyron self-praised as the Disney-cow trolley bumped along. "Horses and cattle mostly, but all sorts of exotic varieties too."

We lurched over a hill, and I saw... "Hippalektryons? I thought they were extinct!"

I saw the strong, horse-rooster-eagle bodies of the Hippalektryons, and Percy's jaw would have fallen to the floor if he hadn't closed his mouth.

"Rooster ponies," Tyson said. "Do they lay eggs?"

I took a breath, ready to answer, when Geyron answered for me.

"Once a year! Very much in demand for omelettes!"

That wasn't what I had in mind at all! This was an endangered species, and they weren't even letting them reproduce!

"That's horrible!" I informed Geyron. "They must be an endangered species!"

Geyron flapped his hand in my general direction. "Gold is gold, darling." _Darling._ I wanted to hit something. " And you haven't tasted the omelettes." A sharp kick from Percy uncurled my fists, but I was still steamed. This was a horrible man.

"That's not right," said our animal activist Grover over here.

Geyron ignored him. "Now, over here, we have out fire breathing horses, which you may have seen on your way in. They're bred for war, naturally."

"What war?" said Percy, as if he didn't know a thing.

Geyron flashed him a yellow smile. "Oh, whichever one comes along. And over yonder," his southern accent twanged, "of course, are our prize red cows."

I flashed back to California, where the cows are black and white, but otherwise, this looked exactly the same. And, come to think of it, they smelled pretty similar too.

"So many," Grover stated.

"Yes, well, Apollo is too busy to see them," Geyron explained enthusiastically. "So he subcontracts us. We breed them vigorously because there's such a demand."

"For what?" Percy asked.

I knew the answer before it left Geyron's lips.

"Meat, of course! Armies have to eat!" I bit my tongue.

Grover inhaled quickly, then coughed up the dust that the train worked up behind it.

"You kill the sacred cows of the sun god for hamburger meat?" he frowned. "That's against the ancient laws!"

"Oh, don't get so worked up satyr. They're just animals." _Oh, right, that'll calm him down._

"Just animals!" Grover cried.

"Yes. And if Apollo cared, I'm sure he would tell us."

"If he knew," Percy muttered in my ear.

Nico leaned forward from his place in the back. "I don't care about any of this Geyron," he whispered fiercely. "We had business to discuss, and this wasn't it!" _Oh, crap._

"All in good time, Mr. di Angelo." It killed me that Geyron called him "Mr." It was just going to get his ego up into the "Dangerously High" zone. "Look over here. Some of my exotic game!"

_Deja vu._

Yes, the whole ring was crawling with milky colored scorpions. The same ones that almost killed Percy and me, only a few nights ago, I think.

"Triple G Ranch!" Percy looked amazed. "Your mark was on the crates at camp. Quintus got his scorpions from you!"

"Quintus..." Geyron said thoughtfully. "Short grey hair, muscular, swordsman?" he guessed.

"Yeah."

"Never heard of him," Geyron said. I was unconvinced. "Now, over here are my prize stables! You must see them."

There was no need to see them. As soon as we were about nine hundred feet away, I was suddenly very discouraged from going anywhere near the stables. The smell of horse feces overpowered me, and it took about all my will power not to keel over. In California, I've smelled enough manure, whether it be cow, horse, or pig. Ugh. Dairy farms.

It was a horse corral, along the side of a pretty, emerald green river. It was big, about the size of one of those sports fields. Baseball, football, it's all the same to me. The stables would have lined up nicely if the sides weren't plastered with the, uh, mud. It was like a poop magnet for the entire population of dung from the whole South. The... fertilizer was about knee deep. On the _horses._

Even Nico coughed, his nose wrinkling in disgust.

"What _is_ that?"

"My stables!" Geyron cried happily. "Well, actually, they belong to Aegeas, but we watch over them for a small monthly fee! Aren't they lovely?"

And the gods know it took everything we all had not to scream:

_'NO!'_


	18. 18

"They're disgusting!" I managed to choke out, yet immediately regretted because it meant I actually had to _breathe._ I almost passed out. Blech.

"Lots of poop," Tyson told Percy.

"How can you keep animals like that?" Grover looked like he would burst into tears.

"Y'all getting' on my nerves." Geyron glared at us. "These are flesh eatin' horses see? They _like_ these conditions." _Oh, right, that makes _total_ sense._

"Plus, you're too cheap to have them cleaned," Eurytion muttered from his slouch next to Nico. I had thought he was asleep.

"Quiet!" Geyron tried to sound tough (to no avail). "All right, perhaps the stables are a bit... _difficult_ to clean. Perhaps they do make me _slightly_ nauseous when the wind blows the wrong way. But so what? My clients still pay me well."

"What clients?" Percy's face was crumpled like a letter that someone stopped writing.

Geyron turned to him, a slimy smile on his face. "Oh, you'd be surprised at how many people will pay for a flesh eating horse. They make a great garbage disposal. Wonderful way to terrify your enemies! Great for birthday parties. We rent 'em out all the time."

"You're a monster," I decided.

His eyes narrowed at me. "What gave it away? Was it the three bodies?"

…I didn't mean it that way.

"You have to let these animals go," Grover told him, his face turned into a pout. "It's not right!"

That's when I realized something. "And these clients you keep talking about," I said. "You work for Kronos, don't you? You're supplying his army with horses, food, whatever they need."

Geyron shrugged, his three sets of shoulders rippling like an ocean of shirts.

"I work for anyone with gold young lady. I'm a businessman. And I sell them anything I have to offer."

Then he pulled himself out of the Disney-trolley and walked away sniffing deeply, like he was breathing in the nice air. It would have made a whole lot _more_ sense to me if nice air had actually existed within 20 miles of this place.

Then Nico almost fell out of the back of the train and stomped up to Geyron.

"I came here for buisness Geyron. And you haven't answered me."

Eurytion shuffled out behind him, pulling his club over his shoulder, as if to say, '_things are going to get ugly.'_

"Mmmm," Geyron stroked a cactus. "Yes, you'll get your deal all right."

"My ghost told me you could help. He said you could guide us to the soul we need," Nico said.

"Wait a second," Percy butted in, _as usual_. "I thought _I_ was the soul you wanted."

"What?" Nico cried, as though that was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. "You? Why would I want you? Bianca's soul is worth a thousand of yours! Now, can you help me Geyron, or not?"

"Oh, I imagine I could," Geyron said. "Your ghost friend, by the way, where is he?"

"He can't form in broad daylight," Nico said uneasily. "It's hard for him. But he's around somewhere."

Geyron smiled knowingly, "I'm sure. Minos likes to disappear when things get... difficult."

"Minos!" Percy said again. Didn't anyone ever teach him that interrupting was rude? Especially when the person who he was interrupting could probably kill him without a second thought? Ergh.

But he continued. "You mean that evil king? _That's _the ghost who's been giving you advice?" Huh. _That evil king._ I thought I had taught him as much as who Minos was in the lessons I gave him. Or, _had,_ given him.

"It's none of your business Percy!" Nico sounded close to tears. We all knew that this was Percy's business because he _always_ butts into things. Nico turned back to Geyron. "And what do you mean about things getting difficult?"

Geyron sighed. "Well, you see Nico—can I call you Nico?"

"No."

"You see Nico, Luke Castellan is offering very good money for half-bloods." My breath caught in my throat. Not my Luke. "Especially powerful little half-bloods like yourself. And I'm sure that when he learns your little secret, who you really are, he'll pay very, very well indeed."

Percy tensed beside me, his hand on his pocket, ready to draw Riptide. I stayed still, pretending to fiddle with my shoelace, while actually ready to whip my knife out from under my jeans if things got dirty.

"I would stay in the car, all of you." Geyron's eyes flashed at us, especially Percy. Orthus flew onto Percy, his mouth inches from his throat. Percy whimpered. Grover's eyes widened. Tyson was watching a butterfly. I was finding my shoelace to be _very_ interesting.

"Or Orthus will rip Mr. Jackson's throat out. Now, Eurytion, if you would be so kind as to secure Nico."

Eurytion sighed tiredly. "Do I have to?" He said, obviously bored with Nico's "emo" persona.

"Yes you fool!" Geyron cried.

Eurytion sighed, swinging Nico over his gigantic, scary shoulder like he was a feather.

"And pick up the sword too," Geyron ordered. "There's nothing I hate more than Stygian iron."

"Now," Geyron cheerily announced. "We've all had the tour. Let's go back to the lodge, have some lunch, and send a message to our friends in the Titan army."

"You fiend!" I cried, but really only thinking about my beautiful-turned-traitor Luke.

Geyron smiled at me, crooked yellow teeth glaring out at me from between his cracked lips.

"Don't worry my dear." My fists clenched in the sleeves of my sweatshirt. "Once I've delivered Mr. di Angelo, you and your party can go. I don't interfere with quests. Besides, I've been paid well to give you a safe passage, which does not, I'm afraid, include Mr. di Angelo."

"Paid by whom?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"Never you mind, darlin'." Gods, I hated it when people said that. Never you mind. Tough luck. I mind. "Let's be off, shall we?"

"Wait!" Percy leapt out of the train, then seeing Orthus's mouth, froze. "Geyron, you said you were a businessman. Make me a deal."

Geyron turned to him. "What sort of deal? Do you have gold?"

Now I was scared.

"I've got something better." Percy responded. Oh, _crap_. "Barter."

"But Mr. Jackson, you've got nothing."

"You could have him clean the stables." Eurytion said simply.

"I'll do it!" Percy said, before Geyron could object. "If I fail, you get all of us. Trade us to Luke for gold." Sometimes, I just hate that boy.

"Assuming the horses don't eat you..." Geyron said.

"Either way you get my friends, but if I succeed, you have to let all of us go, including Nico."

"No!" Nico struggled from Eurytion's shoulder. "Don't do me any favors, Percy! I don't want your help!"

Geyron chuckled, like he was an amusing puppy. A puppy that they needed to "secure." A puppy with a scary black sword. Never mind then.

"Percy Jackson, those stables haven't been cleaned in a thousand years... though it's true that I might be able to sell all that stable space if all that poop was cleared away."

"So what have you got to lose?"

"All right." Geyron said skeptically. "I'll accept your offer, but you have to get it done by sunset. If you fail, your friends get sold and I get rich."

"Deal."

I'm going to get sold to Luke. Oh _crap._


	19. 19

**Hi guys! I know it's been like, _forever_ since I last updated, but at least I'm updating now! I started this chapter a long time ago, got a new computer, and then I'll admit I just kind of forgot about it, until finding it now, saved on my flash drive. I'm ver very very sorry! So here it is! :) I _really_ hope you enjoy this chapter, and _please please __please_ review!**

Even after living in San Francisco for so long, seeing the Golden Gate bridge coming out of the morning fog never ceases to impress me. It's a wonder of architecture. 887,000 tons of gorgeous. The fact that it was redesigned to accommodate Fort Point. How there are 27,572 strands of wire in each cable. It's incredible.

Obviously, if I had done it I would've... never mind.

Of course, I wasn't really in San Francisco. I was dreaming. Another drawback of being a half-blood. Disturbing dreams. My dad was heading into Marin county for some reason. I figured he was heading into Napa to visit some winery. How boring.

That's when he took a wrong turn. When he started heading towards the last place he should go. The road that heads right towards Mount Tam.

"No, Dad, no!" I cried, but my voice came out as less than a whisper. I had forgotten that my father could see through the Mist, like most demigod parents. He must have seen something strange up there last winter, and decided 'oh, what a great idea to go back and investigate!' "_No._" I said, horrified.

* * *

The dream shifted. I was at camp, seven years ago, watching myself get claimed, but through Luke's eyes. The campfire blazed, as the applause faded as the spinning owl over my dirty curls dissolved.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, of household arts and crafts, of spinning and weaving, of textiles. Inventor of the flute, the plough and the ox-yoke, the horse bridle and the chariot. Athena, goddess of war, guardian of Athens, the city named for her; defender of heroes, champion of justice and civil law."

My shining seven year old eyes turned to Luke, as he faked a smile back. Natasha, the head counselor at the time, took my hand and led me off to my cabin.

Luke turned his head away, "At least _her_ mother gives a damn." he muttered.

Then, turning his blue eyes to me, he said in Grover's voice muffled voice, "Annabeth."

"Annabeth!"

"Luke?" I said, confused. I hadn't seen Grover since... since when Thalia...

The dream was already getting foggy.

"Annabeth, for Zeus's sake, _wake up!_"

My eyes shot open. I was still gagged and tied up. Percy was galloping toward us, soaking wet, as the sun sank lower on the horizon. His cute eyebrows... ahem, his _eyebrows_ were low on his forehead. His regular, normal, average, ordinary, black eyebrows. That I do not find cute at _all._

He thundered up the steps. "Let them go! I cleaned the stables!"

Geyron looked mildly surprised. "Did you, now? How'd you manage it?"

He explained, in a rush of words, that seemed to come out of his mouth faster than the ones before them.

I was too far away to hear all of it, and the fact that he was still panting from the run over here didn't give me a great lead. But from what I understood, a naiad showed him petrified seashells and he used his powers to wash all the poop away.

Gross.

"Very ingenious." Geyron seemed to accept that. "It would've been better if you'd poisoned that pesky naiad, but no matter."

"Let my friends go. We had a deal." He ignored Geyron's last comment.

I was getting the feeling something was up.

"Ah, I've been thinking about that. You see, if I let you go, I don't get paid."

Somewhere really, extremely, _exceedingly_ deep inside of me, I wouldn't have minded getting sold to Luke. I knew if I could talk to him, make him see sense like I _didn't _ earlier this summer, I could help him before Kronos used him "like a stepping stone". I knew Luke. And he would see if I could just open his eyes.

"You promised!" Percy cried.

Geyron smiled patronizingly. "_Tsk tsk_. But did you make me swear on the River Styx? No, you didn't. When you're dealing with business, you should always get a binding oath."

Sometimes, I think Percy never grew out of being twelve years old. This was one of those times.

And that feeling just escalated when he drew his sword.

I would have to admit that I kind of zoned out for a while here. I figured there was going to be a fight, and if Percy won, great, we'd get out of here, and then we'd defeat Kronos and save Luke and it would all be fine. If Percy lost, it would suck, but I'd get to see Luke anyways, and convince him that the gods _weren't _actually evil, and then we all wouldn't die. This way, I would've saved the world no matter what the outcome of Percy's fight.

I probably would've smacked myself in the head if my hands weren't tied up. Here I was, being _held hostage _at a Texas ranch,and my fatal flaw starts kicking in.

"... have three hearts. The perfect backup system." Geyron was telling Percy. Percy just kept stabbing him in the front, like a total doofus. It took me about three seconds to figure out that he was going to have to stab him sideways, like in his armpit with an extremely long sword, or shoot an arrow. There was a small shortage of extremely long swords here.

Too bad Percy's about the worst shot I've ever met in my life. And I've met the Stoll brothers.

Geyron kicked over the barbecue, sending hot coals flying everywhere, including my face. I have experience from sitting too close to the campfire at camp, so I knew that burning hair smells _awful._ I screamed and shook my head around, trying to put it out. Then I realized my hair wasn't actually burning. Oh. Tyson thought I was in trouble, and started straining against the ropes, but Geyron must have had some kind of "cyclops proof" ropes, and even Tyson's phenomenal strength wasn't enough to break them.

Percy ran into the house, ignoring Geyron's shouts of "_Coward!_" After about five minutes, I heard a _thump_ followed by two more loud _thump_s, and an arrow flew out of the door, lodging itself into one of the poles that held up the roof of the porch.

That's when Percy bolted out of the house, and next thing I knew was on his knees behind us, fingers fumbling with the knots that held us in place. Eventually, he gave up and just sliced my trio free with Riptide.

"Come on, guys." he muttered, "It's high time we got out of here."

**Wow guys, it's been a while. That was tough.**

**I _know_ that the arrow lodged itself in a bear head, but I needed a way for Annabeth to know what he'd done without him saying anything.**

**I read the Son of Neptune a few days ago, and I was thinking about writing my own "Mark of Athena" to pass the time until it actually comes out. What do you guys think? Would you like to see that from me?**

**Until next time, which I promise won't be six months again.**

**~PurpleShadowMonster**


	20. 20

**I'm no good at promises. I was going to abandon this hideous thing, but some people want me to continue it... I'll try my best. :) (Also I sort of want to get to 100 reviews. Help me out?)**

"You won't try and stop us leaving?"

"Shoot, no."

"And the Titans. Did you Iris-message them about Nico yet?"

"Nope. Geyron was waiting until after the barbecue. They don't know anything about him."

Nico was staring daggers at Kelp Head over there. I was pretty sure that if he was a little bit less afraid of Eurytion, his sword would be at Percy's throat right now.

But then, to be _extra _irritating, Percy decided to talk to the little twerp who wanted to murder him in his sleep. "You could stay here until we're done with out quest. It would be safe."

"Safe?" Mr. Death cried. "What do you care if I'm safe? You got my sister killed!"

While Percy is probably the most annoying person in the entire universe, I still felt a need to protect him from his own stupidity.

"Nico. That wasn't Percy's fault. Geyron wasn't lying about Kronos wanting to capture you. If he knew who you were, he'd do _anything _to get you on his side." Sometimes, when two idiots are having a fight, it takes a dose of genius to keep them from killing each other. I so happened to be the genius.

"I'm not on anyone's side! I'm not afraid!" He said, looking very, very afraid.

"You should be." I started. "Your sister wouldn't want-"

"If you cared for my sister, you'd help me bring her back!"

I took a breath to begin some snarky response, but Percy cut in.

"A soul for a soul?"

I -not for the first time, may I add- was totally lost on the conversation.

"I _will_ bring her back." He said, the black fire in his eyes looking just like his father's.

"Bianca wouldn't want to be brought back. Not like that."

"You didn't know her! How do you know what she'd want?"

It wasn't aimed at me, but suddenly I felt a surge of guilt. Here I was, telling Nico what to do about his family, and I'd never even spoken to the girl. I saw her, once, and then was M.I.A. for the rest of the quest.

Percy made a weird face. "Why don't we ask her."

This was _not _a good idea. I didn't want any part in this.

Nico's rage faded, replaced by a gloomy look. "I've tried. She won't answer."

Percy sighed. "Try again. Maybe she will with me here." Nico glared, but didn't respond. He knew Percy was right. He just didn't want to believe it. "We're going to need a pit. And some food."

Eurytion looked the boys over. "We've got a septic tank out back. Cyclops, fetch my ice chest from the kitchen. I hope the dead like root beer."

* * *

Tyson and I ran, about halfway through the ritual. No one noticed.

Tyson was scared, and when he saw me take off, decided it would be okay if he skipped out too. We fled to the upper floors, in hopes to catch some sleep before dawn.

We found a room of plush pillows and some nice beds, and flipped the lights off. I slammed my head into the smooth fabric.

I closed my eyes, waiting for sleep to wash over me, but Tyson spoke.

"...Percy?" I heard him ask.

"What?" I was too curious to pretend to be asleep.

"Do you love Percy?" He asked. One of the wonderful things about Tyson, you never had to ask what he meant. He was straightforward, and didn't let you question his motives.

I regretted saying anything.

"I don't know." _I wouldn't call it love._

"Why? Grover loves Juniper. He knows."

I wasn't in the mood to spill my guts to Tyson, but I had a feeling he wasn't going to let up until I did.

"Sometimes, I think I do, but other times, I wish he would just vanish and I could forget that he ever existed. He's... irritating, and rude, and pretty stupid most of the time, but he's so... sweet the rest of it. I think I love him, but he doesn't even know it. I don't ever say anything to him, because he'd probably laugh at me. So, I guess, to answer your question, yeah, but I don't think anything will ever come of it."

I heard some rustling as the Cyclops rolled over.

"He loves you." Tyson muttered, and promptly started snoring.

Like I got _any_ sleep that night.

* * *

We packed up in the morning, and ate some sort of Texan cereal that Geyron had laying around.

Nico seemed calmer, and munched on the flakes without any glares at anyone. He still stabbed every square inch of his bowl with his silverware, proving he was still angry at us, but it was a major improvement over last night.

As we were approaching the cattle guard, Percy said suddenly, "Nico, you could come with us."

He shook his head. "I need time to think."

"Bianca just wants you to be safe, Nico." I said, hoping I was right. I reached out to touch his shoulder, a gesture that I used constantly on my brothers back home to calm them. He tore away at my touch, and stalked back to the house.

"I'm worried about him." I told Percy, "If he starts talking to Minos's ghost again-"

"He'll be alright." Eurytion said. He said it like it was a promise. "The boy can stay here and gather his thoughts for as long as he wants. I promise he'll be safe."

I only felt a _little_ better.

It wasn't that I didn't trust Eurytion, I didn't trust Nico not to sneak out and get himself kidnapped.

Percy actually voiced his dissatisfaction. "What about you?"

"Things will definitely change around here. No more sacred cow meat. I'm thinking about trying those soybean patties. Maybe sign up for the next rodeo." He said, scratching the big dog under its chins.

"Good luck." Percy told him, seeming gratified.

"Yep." The big man looked right at me. "I reckon you'll be looking for Daedalus's workshop now?"

My breath caught in my throat. "Can you help us?"


	21. 21

**YES! We made it to 100 reviews! You guys rock! I can update more frequently now. :)**

**Review please!**

Eurytion shrugged. "Don't know where it is. But Hephaestus probably would."

I really didn't care, who knew where it was, I just wanted to find it. "That's what Hera said," more for the sake of my companions than for Eurytion, "but how do we find him?"

Eurytion rummaged down his shirt, and pulled out some sort of smooth disc. He handed it to me. It took most of my willpower not to be a squeamish girl and drop something that had been down a sweaty man's shirt.

"Just press the button and you'll be on your way."

I did just that.

The disc grew eight legs, and began scuttling around. A deep fear filled me from my toes to the top of my head. It was going to kill me. I would never see Percy again. I was going to die. The metal disc was going to take my life.

"SPIDER!" I screamed, and probably jumped about three feet in the air.

"She's a little scared of spiders." Percy explained.

_A little?_ If fear hadn't contacted my throat I would have screamed at him.

The little disc of evil dropped into the maze.

I would've gladly stayed at the ranch to avoid that _thing_, but Percy had other plans.

"That thing's not going to wait for us." He said.

I stayed rooted to the spot.

"Oh, come _on._" He said, and dragged me back into the Labyrinth.

* * *

The spider would've led us straight to our doom if Tyson's reflexes weren't so good. Percy charged ahead, chasing the spider, and promptly almost fell into a pit. Tyson seized him and pulled him back, and Grover and I came to a screeching halt. There was no floor, just a giant pit, and the spider wasn't slowing down. The only way across was a set of monkey bars, and the little ball of Hades was doing a move reminiscent of Spiderman, shooting little metal webs ahead of itself.

It looked like my years of training on the kindergarten playground were not going to waste.

"Monkey bars!" I said, feeling the need to show off, "I'm great at these!" and I took off, not bothering to help the boys. Of course, all them had probably laughed at the little girls when we were swinging our way to our dreams, and now it was _their_ karma to deal with.

We raced after the little spider. It led us into a humongous room, filled with skeletons and broken pencils. Like the SATs from Tartarus.

Then I noticed the Sphinx.

She might have been beautiful, if she was human. The lion body detracted from it a little bit though. She had some sort of award pinned on her shirt, stating THIS MENSTOR AHS EBEN RATED _EEXMPLRAY_. I managed to decode it only about thirty seconds, which gave me about another minute to silently laugh at Percy's confused face.

I noticed open doors on all sides, and the metal spider scuttled under the monster and into one of them.

I figured she might be asleep, since she hadn't noticed the spider, so I started towards the door that the metal thing had gone through.

She roared, baring her terrifying fangs at me. The doors all slammed shut.

"Welcome, lucky contestants!" She shouted in my face, "Get ready to play... ANSWER THAT RIDDLE!" She smiled like she was happy that we were going to join the skeletons that littered the edges of the room.

"Fabulous prizes! Pass the test, and you get to advance! Fail, and I get to eat you!" she looked like she would rather we failed. "Who will be our contestant?"

I, like any demigod in their right mind, had read _Oedipus Rex_ and I knew the answer to the riddle that the beast would ask.

I was pretty sure Tyson couldn't read, and Grover had stated multiple times that Sophocles bores him to tears. I knew for a fact Percy had never studies Oedipus, because I tried to teach it to him myself. (He made up some lame excuse and left.)

"I've got this." I told him, and just to make sure he didn't try to volunteer further, I added, "I know what she's going to ask.

He nodded, and squeezed my hand one last time.

I stepped up to the podium, and pushed a hunched skeleton off of it. It fell to the ground and shattered.

"Sorry." I apologized.

"Welcome, Annabeth Chase!" She screamed in my face. "Are you ready for your test?"

I was confident. This was easy.

"Yes. Ask your riddle."

"Twenty riddles, actually!" the Sphinx grinned cheerfully.

I felt my stomach drop to my feet and my arms turn to lead. I was in no way prepared for twenty riddles.

"What?" I said, before I could stop myself, "But, in the old days-"

She glared at me. "Oh, we've raised our standards! To pass, you must show proficiency in all twenty! Isn't that great?"

_No, it really isn't._

I glanced at Percy, who tried to give me an encouraging smile, but ended up just baring his teeth in a ridiculously disturbing way.

"Okay," I said. Athena does not give her children the gift of intelligence if they intend on wasting it. "I'm ready."

"What..." I took a deep breath and clenched my fists. "is the capital of Bulgaria?"

_Sofia._

This wasn't a riddle. I frowned, confused. The Sphinx looked at me excited, like she was waiting for me to say 'I don't know' so she could have a nice tasty demigod snack.

I wasn't about to let her eat my friends. "Sofia, but-" I had a couple questions. What happened to the original _man_ riddle? How is this a riddle?

"Correct!" She squealed, looking a little disappointed. "Be sure to mark your answer clearly on your test sheet with a No. 2 pencil, or the machine will not be able to read your answers." She gestured a paw to a metal grading machine sitting in the corner.

I looked down at the podium. There was no test sheet, and no pencil.

As if on cue, a booklet and pencil appeared in a puff of smoke and the smell of rotten eggs.

"Next question-" she began.

"Wait!" I cried. "What happened to 'What walks on four legs in the morning'?"

"I beg your pardon?" the monster clenched her fangs, not even trying to hide her irritation.

"The riddle you used to ask. The riddle about a man."

"Exactly why we changed the test! You know the answer all ready!" She gave me a look like 'is that much not obvious?'.

"What is the square root of sixteen?"

Anyone who has ever been to a math class knows that one. "Four." I was still dissatisfied. "But-"

"Correct! Which U.S. president signed the Emancipation Proclamation?"

"Lincoln, but-"

"Correct! Number four. How much-"

"Hold up!" I wasn't going to stand for this sort of useless testing. "These aren't riddles! These are just a bunch of dumb, random facts! Riddles are designed to make you think."

"How am I supposed to test if you can think? That's ridiculous!" she snapped, "Number four." She repeated, "How much force is required-"

"Stop!" I persisted, "This is a stupid test."

"Annabeth," Grover was shaking in his fake shoes, "maybe, you could, just finish first, and complain later?"

What was _with_ everyone? "I am a child of Athena. This is an insult to my intelligence. I won't answer these questions."

I could only hope that my mother was listening and was going to save us from certain death.

The Sphinx's eyes gleamed with hate.

"Well, my dear," she said with mock calm, "If you won't pass, you fail. And since we can't allow any children to be held back, you will now be EATEN!"

She bared her teeth and pounced straight towards me.

**Please review guys!**


	22. 22

**I'm considering changing the title of this story, to something more... creative.  
**

**My other story, VIII, is in a community! It's called "Phenomenal Stories"! (I'm super excited.) ********If you haven't read it, you should go check it out!**

******Other stories aside, here's the latest installment!  
**

If Tyson hadn't jumped in front of me and charged the Sphinx in midair I probably wouldn't have survived for another three seconds. In those three seconds, I had the sense to grab my knife out of my sleeve and race towards the monster. Tyson was challenging the creature with nothing but his fists.

I was about to jump into the action, when Percy stepped in front of me. "Turn invisible."

Who did he think he was? Just because he had led a quest before didn't mean he knew everything. I was perfectly capable of doing what I pleased. I was, in fact, the one leading this quest, and nothing he said was going to stop me. "I can fight!" I burst out. I wasn't about to let Tyson get hurt because some idiot with a sword told me not to.

I pushed past him, making my way towards the Sphinx. "No!" he yelled, grabbing my wrist. "The Sphinx is after _you_! Let us get it!" As if to prove his point, he gestured to the animal in front of me. I watched in horror as the beast knocked Tyson aside with a swipe of her paw and would've maimed Percy, if Grover hadn't poked her in the eye with a femur.

I hate it when Percy's right.

Pretty soon I was going to have to prove him wrong about something, to set the universe in balance again, but for now, I just put my hat on. I felt the familiar tingle in my fingertips, as my body shimmered out of existence.

I dove to one side, not a second to late, as the Sphinx pounced on the exact spot I had been standing less than a second ago.

"No fair!" the creature whined, "Cheaters!" I'd never cheated on a test, but I knew from people cheating off of me, that test givers have a special hatred for cheaters. I'd watched as many detentions were handed out to those who craved my answers for their own.

Of course, when we're talking about monsters, It's a little more dangerous.

I heard a clang from the corner of the room, as Tyson tore the grading machine off of the floor, and threw it with all his strength at the monster's head, causing her tightly wound hair bun to fall in her face.

The barred exits lifted, and Percy raced towards the nearest one. I waded through skeletons and pencils after him, trying my very best not to die. The Sphinx chucked smoking metal bits of her grading machine around the room, hoping to hit me by a lucky shot. A flaming hunk of metal narrowly missed my head, chopping off about an inch of my hair,.

I ran after Percy, diving into the doorway. Grover frantically ran towards us.

"Annabeth!" Percy turned, pausing to scream my name.

"Here!" I answered, pushing him ahead. "Keep moving!" The Sphinx wailed behind us, trying to fit her humongous shoulders through the bars that blocked the exits.

* * *

I don't know how long we ran, blindly turning corners and panting as we kicked up dust that hadn't moved in centuries.

"Wait," Percy wheezed, "where's the spider?"

I paused, and Grover and Tyson came to a screeching halt behind us, tripping over each other in their rush.

"Quiet." Tyson mumbled, "Do you hear it?" His eye bore into mine, his single eyebrow high on his forehead.

"What do we hear?" Percy stage whispered to me, looking confused. There wasn't much change from his normal expression.

"The pinging." Tyson said.

Percy locked eyes with me, and my heart stopped beating for half a second. I shrugged. I didn't know what he was talking about any better than Percy did.

Percy placed a hand on Tyson's shoulder. "Lead the way, big guy."

Tyson led us through a series of tunnels. After about four turns I lost my mental map and gave up. Tyson was trying to help, but he kept leading us to dead ends, causing us to backtrack more times than I could count. After traipsing through the curviest tunnel I'd ever seen, I finally heard the sound of metal on metal, and we found the spider knocking it's evil head on a huge grey door.

Grover turned to us, "Ready to meet Hephaestus?" he bleated.

"No." Percy looked at the ground.

"YES!" Tyson cried, and charged inside, fearless.

The second the door opened, the spider flew inside, and Tyson followed suit. I peered at Percy, who clenched his jaw and stepped inside.

I drew in a deep breath, and stepped over the threshold.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. It smelled like oil and man sweat, something that, after living in the Athena cabin for seven years, I never wanted to smell again. Oil was dripping off of a few of the projects, little metal animals that looked like they could come alive any minute, if I wasn't looking directly at them. Some sort of banging noise was coming from a huge car over in the closest corner to us.

The next thing I noticed was the sheer size of the place. It looked like a typical dad garage, with projects everywhere, but about fifty times the size. It was any mechanic's dream. More tools than even Beckendorf had, and so many little automatons that I doubted Hephaestus himself new what all of them were.

Everything had a place to go, but nothing was where it should be. Tiny ponies smaller than my pinky finger were strewn about the ground, or resting on an automaton twice the size of Tyson.

The metal spider skittered under the gigantic car, (the boys probably knew what kind it was) and the banging sound stopped.

"Well, well," a deep voice nearly took out my eardrums, "what do we have here?"

**Hit or miss?**

**Also, I lost touch with my beta... Anyone want to give it a shot?  
**

**Please review!  
**


	23. 23

**Hey guys! I'm back!**

The second I saw the ugly blacksmith god, I had the thought that he was going to try and kill us for interrupting his work.

His face was frozen in an angry grimace, and his clothing looked like it hadn't been washed since the Black Plague. One of his legs was in it's classic brace, giving him an overall lopsided look, which only added to my feeling of insecurity. He was easily twice as tall as Tyson, and was three times as skilled with metal. He took the spider apart in two seconds, and put it back together in less.

As soon as his fingers left its back, it did an excited flip in his palm. "There." he murmured, "Much better."

As he straightened himself up, I did a mental check of everything he could possibly use to slaughter us. The pliers that he was holding in his left hand could probably be used to gouge our eyes out, or to and the cut our fingers off. The little fires that constantly erupted in his beard were probably hidden welding torches that he could use to burn our flesh.

I went in to immediate survival mode. Do not speak unless spoken to, and if an available exit is open, run as fast as possible and get out.

I glanced at the door we'd entered through, and decided that I could probably make it in about 4.7 seconds, without telling the boys first.

He stared at me, as if trying to figure out the best place to smack me with his hammer. "I didn't make you, did I?" he asked, his uneven face twisted into a confused expression.

He was looking directly at me. Rule#24 about meeting a god: Always answer the question. The "what to do when you meet a Greek god" rules always outweighed survival rules, so I had to answer.

"No, sir."

"Good." He inspected me. "Shoddy workmanship."

I hoped he didn't mean we were ugly.

"We've met, sir." Percy pointed out. He meant that he had seen him twice, on Olympus. Yeah, sure. By that logic, I'd "met" Aphrodite. It led me to wonder whether the deformed man had voted for our death or not.

But Hephaestus didn't seem to remember. "Have we?" His hideous face twisted in to something I thought might have been thoughtful. "Well, I suppose if I didn't smash you to a pulp the first time we met, I won't have to do it now."

For once, I was thankful for Percy's idiocy.

He checked us all out. "

"Satyr." He grumbled in Grover's direction.

Then his eyes passed to Tyson, and his face twitched around his beard. I supposed he was smiling. "Cyclops. Good, good. What are you doing traveling with this lot?"

"Uh..." Tyson's single eyebrow was scrunched in confusion.

Hephaestus's face returned to its usual scowl, annoyed with Tyson's non-reaction. "Yes, well said." I swear I caught him roll his eyes for a second. "So, there'd better be a good reason you're disturbing me. The suspension on this Corolla is no small matter, you know."

The boys turned to me expectantly, _all right, Annabeth, you're leading the quest, you talk to the scary guy_.

"Sir," I swallowed a lump in my throat, "we're looking for Daedalus. We thought-"

"_Daedalus?!_" He boomed, his black beard bursting into a forest fire. "You want that old scoundrel? You dare seek him out?"

_Rule #24. Answer the question._

"Um..."

_Answer the question, Annabeth!_

"Yes, sir, please, sir."

"Well, you're wasting your time." He lumbered over to a table, and with incredible ease, formed a bird out of some bronze scraps. Tyson clapped his huge hands, as the bird soared around the room, coming to rest on his shoulder.

Hephaestus eyed our Cyclops friend. His face didn't change, but when he spoke, there was less of an edge to his deep voice. "I sense that you have something to tell me, Cyclops."

Tyson shifted his weight, his face molding into something different. "Y-yes, lord. We met a Hundred-Handed One."

The god looked nonplussed. "Briares."

"Yes. He was scared! He would not help us!" Tyson looked sad and angry at the same time.

"And that bothered you." Hephaestus said knowingly.

"Yes!" Tyson cried, "Briares should be strong! He is older and greater than Cyclopes." Tyson looked at the ground, not meeting the god's eyes. "But he ran away."

Hephaestus blinked. "There was a time when I admired the Hundred-Handed Ones. Back in the days of the first war. You can't trust 'em. People, monsters, even gods change. Look at my _loving_ mother Hera. She'll smile to your face and talk about how important family is, huh?" It was true. She did that a lot. "Didn't stop her from pitching me off Mount Olympus when she saw my ugly face."

"I thought Zeus did that to you." Percy said plainly.

"Mother likes that version of the story." he frowned at the ground. "Makes her seem more likable, eh? Truth is, Hera likes families, but she only likes a certain _kind_ of family. Perfect families. She took one look at me and..." he gestured to his ash smeared clothes. "I don't really fit the image, do I?"

Tyson, enthralled by his speech, took an inadvertent step forward. Hephaestus looked him right in the eye.

"Believe me, young Cyclops, you can't trust others. All you can trust is the work of your own hands."

I didn't like him putting these ideas in Tyson's head. If Tyson decided _here_ not to trust others, or _us_, we would be screwed. I needed him. I had a feeling that this quest would fail if I didn't have all three of the boys.

Apparently, Percy felt the same way. "We need to find Daedalus." He announced, breaking the stare between the god and Cyclops. "There's this guy Luke, and he's working for Kronos. He's trying to figure out a way to navigate the Labyrinth so he can invade our camp. If we don't get to Daedalus first-"

_We all die._ I finished for him in my head.

"I told you, boy. Looking for Daedalus is a waste of time. He won't help you."

"Why?" Always questioning, that boy.

"Some of us get thrown off mountainsides. Some of us... the way we learn not to trust others is more painful." _Some of us get abandoned by the one real chance we had to have a family. Some of us have our best friend turned into a tree. _"Ask me for gold. Or a flaming sword. That I can grant you easily. But a way to Daedalus? That's an expensive favor."

"You know where he is, then."

I am an intelligent girl. I am Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. I've outsmarted countless campers, and even Chiron, who's immortal and should know better. I can outsmart a god. I _will_ find my way to Daedalus, and I _will_ find my way back to Luke.

"It isn't wise to go looking girl."

"My mother says looking is the nature of wisdom." I countered.

He squinted at me, searching for a resemblance to one of his fellow goddesses. "Who's your mother, then?"

"Athena." I told him, without missing a beat.

"Figures." he grumbled. "Fine goddess, Athena. A shame she pledged never to marry." He contemplated me. "All right, half-blood. I can tell you what you want to know." _Yes._ "But there is a price. I need a favor."

_Anything. _Anything to get back to Luke.

I took a deep breath. "Name it."

**Please review! Thanks!**

**~PurpleShadowMonster**


	24. 24

Hephaestus laughed in my face.

"You heroes." He chuckled, "Always making rash promises. How refreshing!"

I got a bad feeling as he mentioned "rash promises". Whatever this task was, it wasn't going to be easy.

The fire god pulled out a souped up Comcast remote, and pressed one of the buttons. A whole wall opened up to reveal a theater sized television screen. On it, a smoking mountain smoked, probably somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, based on the trees that ringed it. I tried to recall hearing about a recent volcano up there, but nothing came to mind. I was going to have to start paying _way_ more attention when Chiron mentioned current events.

"One of my forges," Hephaestus sighed, "I have many, but that used to be my favorite."

Grover tapped his hooves on the cement floor. "That's Mount St. Helens," he murmured, "Great forests around there."

I _had_ heard of that! It was somewhere in Western Washington, somewhere I'd heard was amazingly beautiful.

Percy raised a... _normal_ eyebrow. "You've been there?"

"You know..." Grover gestured at nothing. "Looking for Pan."

"Wait," I spoke, shifting my gaze to the huge man in front of me. "You said it _used to be_ your favorite. What happened?" _Weird Seattle-ites finally get to you? Tourists accidentally barged in? Too much coffee?_

The fire god pinched a glowing ember in his beard, extinguishing its light. "Well, that's where the monster Typhon is trapped. Used to be under Mount Etna, but when we moved to America, his force got pinned under Mount St. Helens instead. Great source of fire, but a bit dangerous. There's always a chance that he will escape. Lots of eruptions these days, smoldering all the time. He's restless with the Titan rebellion.

"What do you want us to do?" Percy asked, "Fight him?"

Had Percy _ever _read a Greek myth? The gods themselves could barley contain him.

Luckily, Hephaestus didn't blast him to bits for his stupidity, as I would have done. He merely snorted, and rolled his eyes. "That would be suicide. The gods themselves ran from Typhon when he was free. No, pray you never have to see him, much less fight him. But lately I have sensed intruders in my mountain. Someone or something is using my forges. When I go there, it is empty, but I can tell it's being used. The sense me coming and they disappear. I send my automatons to investigate, but theu do not return. Something... ancient is there. Evil. I want to know who dares invade my territory, and if they mean to loose Typhon."

"You want us to go and find out who it is." Percy stated, not bothering this time to ask another obvious question.

"Aye." Hephaestus said, "Go there. They may not sense you coming. You are not gods."

I would've said something like _"Great observation, Sherlock." _if I wasn't so terrified of him.

Percy said something to that extent, but he merely muttered it to Grover, who smirked.

Hephaestus didn't seem to notice our reactions, and continued. "Go and find out what you can. Report back to me, and I will tell you what you need to know about Daedalus."

All of my reservations regarding the danger of this mini quest dissolved immediately. We _needed_ to get the information. I _needed _to find Luke. I took a breath, preparing myself for this impossible task. "All right. How to we find it?"

* * *

Of course. _Of course, _we would have to follow the spider to the forges. Because I wasn't already anxious enough. No, we had to add in the _evil_ animal in to the mix, just so I could be _as_ stressed out as possible. Naturally.

We were making great time, until my flashlight beam revealed the tree roots. Percy scanned the room with his light, revealing a tunnel dug off to the side.

Grover froze.

"What is it?" Percy asked, shining his flashlight down the tunnel.

Grover stayed rooted to the spot, still staring with his mouth wide open.

I glanced at the spider scuttling farther and farther away. "Come on!" I tugged at his hand, "We have to keep moving!"

"This is the way." Grover murmured, examining the roots that framed the tunnel's entrance. "This is it." I knew somewhere deep inside that this _was_ it, and Grover wasn't going to leave without investigation.

"What way?" Percy asked. "You mean... to Pan?"

Grover disregarded the stupid question. Instead, he turned to Tyson. "Don't you smell it?"

Tyson seemed confused about what exactly "it" was, but he stated what he smelled. "Dirt." He nodded, "and plants."

"Yes!" Grover seemed to think that it was now confirmed. "This is the way. I'm sure of it."

"We'll come back," I promised desperately. "On the way back to Hephaestus." The spider was beginning to round a corner. If we waited here any longer, we would never get to the forge.

"The tunnel will be gone by then." He looked at me, clenched his jaw, and returned his gaze to the passage to Pan. "A door like this won't stay open long."

"But..." I couldn't find the words to describe why we couldn't follow it. "The forges." Was all that came out of my mouth, as Grover looked at me sadly.

"I have to, Annabeth. Don't you understand?"

No, I didn't understand.

He'd only used this tone with me once before, and I would never forget the circumstances of it.

_Luke was in his cabin, heaving with sobs. I stood, staring at a tree that used to be Thalia. I couldn't understand where my friend had gone. My young but intelligent mind couldn't comprehend the idea that Thalia was _in_ that tree somewhere. After the trauma earlier that week, nothing felt quite real, like I was in some sort of daze. I felt a hand __on my shoulder. Grover looked at me, sadness in his eyes. "It's past curfew, Annabeth. She's not likely to come back, soon, or possibly ever. You need to move on with life."_

"We'll split up." A voice interrupted my memory.

Percy and Tyson didn't understand. Grover was wrong. Thalia _had_ come back. We didn't need to follow the tunnel. We could keep moving on. We could still stop Luke.

"No!" I protested, "That's way too dangerous. How will we ever find each other again? And Grover can't go alone."

Tyson swallowed, stepping forward. "I- I will go with him"

I'll admit, that _did _shock me. Tyson was scared silly of the satyr.

Percy's eyes were wide too. "Tyson, are you sure?"

Tyson closed his eye. "Goat boy needs help. We will find the god person. I am not like Hephaestus. I trust friends."

Grover turned to Percy. "We'll find each other again. We've still got the empathy link. I just... have to."

"Be careful." He said, his voice cracking.

Grover squeezed my hand one last time, and he and Tyson disappeared into the roots.

"This is bad." I said, "Splitting up is a really, really bad idea."

Percy stared at my with his bright green eyes. "We'll find them again." And for a second, I almost believed him.

**How was that guys? :) Please review!**

**~PurpleShadowMonster  
**


	25. 25

**Oh, look, here I am! Back again!**

**I am truly sorry for leaving you all hanging so often... I keep saying I'll try not to but I still do it. :( Sorry!  
**

**Anyways, as long as I'm back, here is chapter 25!  
**

* * *

I usually sweat when I run.

I mean, most people do, it's not like it's abnormal or something. But as the tunnel heated up, and Percy and I couldn't slow down because of the spider's fast pace, I was surprised that I hadn't drowned in the sweat that was pouring off my upper lip.

"Hey, wait up!" Percy called from behind me, running faster to match my speed.

I glanced at my companion, and was gratified to discover that his hair was soaked and stuck to his forehead as well. "Yeah?" I asked.

"Something Hephaestus said back there... about Athena."

I almost burst out laughing. I knew exactly what he was talking about. He was so oblivious sometimes.

"She swore never to marry." I said, swallowing a giggle, "Like Artemis and Hestia. She's one of the maiden goddesses." Percy seemed to consider this for a moment. I turned my head away from him, and chased the spider as it rounded another tight corner. I brought my hand to my forehead, wiping away some of the sweat that was collecting above my eyebrows.

"But then-"

"How come she has demigod children?" I said slowly, as if talking to a small child.

He nodded sheepishly.

I started simple, hoping he would figure out what I was talking about without my having to explain my birth. "Percy, do you know how Athena was born?"

"She sprung from the head of Zeus in full battle armor or something."

_Or something_...? That's what happened. "Exactly. She wasn't born in the normal way. She was literally born from thoughts. Her children are born the same way. When Athena falls in love with a mortal man, it's purely intellectual, the way she loved Odysseus in the old stories. It's a meeting of minds. She would tell you that's the purest kind of love."

But as I was running through a blazing hot tunnel after a tiny metal spider, when I glanced at Percy, I realized would disagree. For a boy really not known for his brain power, he was pretty great.

Percy was still stuck on another subject. "So your dad and Athena... so you weren't..."

I sighed. "I was a brain child. Literally. Children of Athena are sprung from the divine thoughts of our mother and the mortal ingenuity of our father. We are supposed to be a gift, a blessing from Athena on the men she favors." _Unless you're _my_ dad, and_ _then you try and _return _the gift, because, let's be honest, you never really wanted a daughter anyway._

"But-"

I really wasn't in the mood to go any deeper in to the details of my birth. "Percy, the spider is getting away. Do you really want me to explain the exact details of how I was born?"

"Um... no. That's okay."

I rolled my eyes. "I thought not." and then I ran just a little bit faster, so I wouldn't have to look at him when I started laughing.

* * *

We ran for about another half mile, and the tunnel opened in to a cavern bigger than the sword fighting arena back at at camp.

The forge of Hephaestus.

Instead of something normal, and logical, like say, a _floor_, we were standing on a ledge that ringed a pit of bubbling lava, with spindly little bridges crisscrossing across its surface, looking like they would break as soon as we touched them.

In the center there was a huge platform, on top of which sat something that resembled a cauldron, but I couldn't quite see it from where Percy and I were standing. Big monsters that looked like my mythology book's picture of a telekhine shuffled about on the bridges and left through doors on the side to smaller caverns.

Percy exhaled. "We'll never be able to sneak up on them."

"I can." I pulled out my Yankees cap, and felt the familiar tingle through my fingers and across the crown of my head as my body shimmered out of existence.

When I was about nine or ten, I'd entertained myself for hours in front of a mirror, disappearing and reappearing again. I could only begin to imagine what Percy was seeing as he stage whispered "Hold it!".

In a mischievous moment, I grabbed the back of his ankle to scare him, but he was already petrified with fear, and didn't seem to notice.

I ran towards the center of the pit, trying to be agile enough to avoid the telekhines, but not so agile as to flip myself over the side of the bridge and in to the boiling lava.

I wasn't too keen on becoming a volcano today.

After too many close calls, I conceded to practically crawling underneath the metal railing, where even the monsters' slippery flippers wouldn't brush any part of my body.

Eventually, with a sore neck and two _very_ bruised knees, I made it to the platform in the center of the lava. I glanced up, hoping to see the sky. I saw nothing but black as the cone of the volcano disappeared into the air.

A growling voice echoed from somewhere behind the cauldron that I was crouching behind. "It needs another cooling to fuse the Celestial Bronze."

"We have to wait." An even deeper voice replied. "It won't fuse if we cool it now."

"No! If we wait any longer, the steel with separate from the copper." A third voice argued.

I stood up behind the cauldron, to try to find the source of the voices.

Four of the monsters, fully grown and more terrifying than a centaur in a prom dress, were all hammering away at a metal rod. It hadn't taken its final form yet, I could tell that much, but whatever I saw made me weak in the knees and I slumped back down behind the cauldron, by heart beating like crazy.

I scanned the room, and was surprised to see no one but Percy, running directly towards me.

"Annabeth!"

* * *

**:) How was that? **

**Next chapter is the chapter you are all so excited for. ;)  
**

**See you next time!  
**

**~purple shadow monster  
**


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